Director Adil El Arbi and his co-director Bilall Fallah received the news that their recently finished $90 million feature Batgirl will be shelved as part of a cost-saving measure for Warner Bros Discovery under David Zaslav’s new leadership two days after their wedding in Morocco.
At the Red Sea International Film Festival on Monday, Bilall told Deadline that the experience had been “difficult” and that he and El Arbi had experienced “all the emotions.” El Arbi at Deadline’s Red Sea Studio stated, “At that time, it was very unprecedented, so it was like cinematic history, but weirdly. This week, the Belgian directorial team, who were both born in Morocco, attended the festival with their film Rebel, which tells the tale of two Belgian brothers who join ISIS.
The Leslie Grace starrer had concluded filming, but El Arbi said that it was “far from done” and that just one version of the movie had been edited. Fallah expressed their “very awful” feelings towards every performer, including Grace, J.K. Simmons, Michael Keaton, and Brendan Fraser, as well as the cast, writers, and viewers. But we had a lot of help from everyone in the business, including directors, screenwriters, and studio employees, who helped us get through this trying period and made us feel less alone, which is good.
When asked if there would be a method for viewers to see the movie in the future, El Arbi responded, “No, not at all.” There is nothing we can do to change their minds, but when you see Brendan Fraser, who is probably going to win an Oscar for his portrayal in The Whale, you wonder if it will work in our favor. There is still a lot of work to be done, and he said, “Should it maybe be released, I don’t know whether they are going to go back for it.”
In August, Warner Bros. Discovery shelved the DC project to utilize a “purchase accounting” strategy made possible by the company’s recent ownership shift. The studio decided to take advantage of a circumstance where it would be spared from bearing any losses as it searched for $3 billion in cost-saving synergies because that chance ended in the middle of August.
The pair responded, “We’d love to work for a DC project in the future but the one request is that the movie comes out when asked if they would be reluctant to work with Warner Bros again. The only request is that.
Bill remarked, “We are still fans of the DC world.