Last August, Warner Bros. married in marriage with Discovery, a surprise union followed by a cataclysm without equal in Hollywood. The newlyweds decided to completely revise their marketing strategy and get rid of a good part of the DCEU projects. First to bear the brunt of this great upheaval: Batgirl. The feature film, then in post-production, was put away, Warner-Discovery swearing never to take it out of its drawers. A heartbreaker for millions of fans. Two months later, the scandal Batgirl returns to center stage again.
According to an article from HollywoodReporter, Michael Keaton would have been rewarded with an exorbitant salary for a simple ” cameo in his glory “. Warner Bros. would have given the actor 2 million dollars for a single week of filming. A scandalous sum for a shooting estimated at 90 million dollars, but an anecdotal gratification for Robert Downey Jr. who had meanwhile been paid 50 million dollars to take over the role of Tony Stark / Ironman in the first film of the saga avengers. ” If you want to get paid, you have to wear a cape “, quips a negotiator.
Why Warner Bros. decided to cancel Batgirl
During a test screening, spectators would have compared Batgirl at “ a bad tv series episode “, a judgment on which Warner Bros. would not have pressed to cancel the release of the film. According to sources close to studio executives, the controversial decision has nothing to do with ” the quality of the film or the commitment of the directors “. ” The decision not to go out Batgirl reflects our strategic shift with respect to the DC Universe and HBO Max “, later said a spokesperson for Warner, also specifying that [Leslie Grace est] an incredibly talented actress, and this decision has nothing to do with her performance. It is rumored that the Hollywood giant would have chosen to cancel the film to obtain a tax deduction. According to an anonymous source, this decision was “ seen internally as the most financially sound way to get the money back [investi dans la production] “.