Report: Batgirl to receive 'funeral screenings' on Warner Bros. lot
The Leslie Grace-starring vehicle introducing the big screen Barbara Gordon will be screened in unfinished form for cast and crew
Batgirl isn’t as dead as it seems… well, not entirely, anyway. The canceled Warner Bros. adaptation of the beloved DC character will be screened after all – in private screenings for those who worked on the project, according to reports.
The Hollywood Reporter is citing “multiple sources” in reporting that a version of the movie, directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, will be shown in secret on the Warner Bros. lot this week in what is being described as “funeral screenings” for the project. The screenings will be attended by cast and crew who worked on the movie, as well as Warner Bros. executives and representatives, according to THR.
It’s unknown exactly what shape the movie will be in during these screenings; Batgirl was in the middle of the post-production process when the plug was pulled earlier this month, but a version of the movie had been screened in a secret test screening for the public earlier this year. According to sources, the cut that currently exists will feature a temp score and unfinished visual effects.
El Arbi and Fallah have recently spoken about the cancelation of the project, saying that they have been locked out of servers where the footage was stored, and that while they hope that the project will one day be officially released, it’s far from finished, and requires additional footage in order to be ready for public consumption.
The directors, who also worked on Disney+’s Ms. Marvel series, aren’t the only members of the Batgirl team remaining hopeful that the movie may one day get some form of public release. Ivory Aquino, who plays Alysia Yeoh in the film, posted a plea to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav on Twitter for the movie to be saved. “For me, more than anything, it is a father-daughter story which hits close to home as my Dad passed a year ago, shortly before I booked this project, and I was hoping it would resonate with other children around the world, grown and not-so-grown, who hold their fathers in the highest esteem and who could see Batgirl as a story of that special bond,” she wrote. “I’ve found myself not being able to talk about this ordeal with anyone. I realized that no one, apart from those involved with the film, would truly understand what we’re feeling. And talking about it with my castmates, I feel, might be akin to rubbing salt on a still-open wound.”
The $90 million project was killed as part of Warner Bros. Discovery’s attempts to save money following the companies’ merger earlier this year; it’s been suggested that, in order to qualify as a tax write-off, the company might go so far as to destroy existing footage of the movie. Others believe that, similarly to Zack Snyder’s Justice League, the footage will be locked away but remain available for potential use at a later time, should executives reconsider.
Read more about the reaction of the directors to the project’s cancelation in the immediate aftermath of the event.
