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When Will Forte got the script for his latest film, Coyote vs. Acme, it was an immediate yes. But it wasn’t until he finished shooting the movie that he realized just how excited he was about it.
Coyote vs. Acme is a hybrid live-action/animation film in the vein of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, set in the Looney Tunes universe. It follows Wile E. Coyote as he sues the Acme Corporation for selling him faulty products and inflicting emotional and bodily harm. Forte stars as Kevin Avery, a struggling personal injury attorney who takes on the case.
Honoured to share the screen with some of the legendary cartoon characters he grew up with as a kid in the ’70s, Forte was genuinely looking forward to seeing the film. But then, just a day before the preview screening was scheduled, he got some bad news from his agent and manager.
WATCH | Full interview with Will Forte:
“They called and said, ‘Well, Warner Bros. is not going to release the movie theatrically,’” the actor and comedian recalls in an interview with Q guest host Garvia Bailey. “‘They’re not going to stream it either. They’re just going to make it go away. They’re going to make it disappear, and they’re taking a tax write-off.’”
Forte and everyone else who worked on the film were left in a state of shock and confusion.
“They still allowed us to see the movie a week later,” he says. “They called it a ‘funeral screening.’ And in that week, we just all logically concluded, well, it must not be very good then.… We go in and see it, and it was fantastic.”
The studio’s decision to kill the movie was even more bewildering given how positive the preview and test screenings had been.
“I mean, this was such a special movie,” he says. “At the end of it, I think everybody in the room just looked around like, ‘What the heck is going on here? That’s the movie they’re not going to release?’ It felt like we were gaslit.”
WATCH | Official trailer for Coyote vs. Acme:
After that, it didn’t take long for frustration and heartbreak to give way to anger.
“I was seeing this movie that I could have shared with my kids — and I don’t have a lot of those in my oeuvre,” Forte says with a laugh. “I got more and more angry. And then, eventually, I just had to let that go because harbouring that amount of anger inside of you is just going to do you harm. So I just tried to let it go and move on with my life.”
But as Forte did his best to move past the experience, Looney Tunes fans, animation enthusiasts and Hollywood professionals started taking their outrage online and, in one case, even went so far as to protest outside the Warner Bros. office in the rain, while dressed in a Wile E. Coyote costume.
Just like in the movie, all these underdogs somehow were able to rise up against this massive corporation.– Will Forte
“They were really letting Warner Bros. hear about it, and for a prolonged amount of time,” Forte says. “I didn’t think that it was going to make a difference. It really just seemed like it was too late. But they kept at it, and kept at. And then, eventually, I think Warner Bros. just was like, ‘OK, we don’t want to deal with this anymore.’”
Forced to reverse its decision, Warner Bros. sold Coyote vs. Acme to Ketchup Entertainment, which ultimately saved the film. The movie officially hits theatres today.
“That’s why we’re going to get to see this movie, is because Ketchup came in, but only because the fans made such a big stink,” Forte says. “Just like in the movie, all these underdogs somehow were able to rise up against this massive corporation, and now we get to see the movie.”
Watch or listen to the full interview with Will Forte to hear him look back on some of the most delightfully weird highlights of his career. He also talks about Saturday Night Live, working with Lorne Michaels, and producing a sketch show starring his mom.
The full interview with Will Forte is available on our YouTube channel and on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Will Forte produced by Vanessa Nigro.
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