Warner Bros Discovery’s canning of the Leslie Grace Batgirl movie for a tax write-off still smarts for fans who got excited to see it. But it surely hurts more for Batgirl‘s directors. Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. They made a near-complete movie, only to find out nobody would ever see it, save at one cast and crew screening on the lot. One they couldn’t even attend, as they were in Belgium at the time. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, they reveal that, on the upside, many heavy-hitters in the industry reached out to them since to express condolences. Including the new co-head of DC films.
“There was so much support from people in the industry,” says Fallah, naming James Gunn, Kevin Feige, and Edgar Wright. “[I]t felt like all the artists were supporting us, and that’s a great feeling, because you feel like you’re not alone.” Though they haven’t formally met with Gunn yet, they will, as “the meetings are in the books,” says Arbi. “This is something that never happened before, so we’ve kind of become part of movie history without even trying!”
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Like most working directors, they’d naturally be willing to work with DC again, “of course we’ll say yes,” says Fallah. “Just so long as the movie comes out!” Fan disappointment and new regime aside, Batgirl‘s unlikely to see the light of day, as doing so would require WBD to pay back the tax write-off they received from shelving it. Also, it wasn’t fully complete, so it would cost even more. “We still needed additional photography, there were a lot of scenes missing, and the VFX was not there,” says Arbi. “I don’t know if [Warner Bros.] are really gonna go for that, but we’ll see, sometimes we think it’s [screwed], but sometime it’s like … maybe!”
Would you like to see the Batgirl team get a do-over? Let us know in comments!
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