The directors of the film Batgirl said on Wednesday that they were shocked by the decision of the studio Warner Bros. not to release a superhero film, although it is almost finished, writes AFP. Warner Bros. Discovery has decided to stop the already shot feature film, which will not be released either in theaters or on the HBO Max streaming platform, news.ro notes.

Sources told Variety that the decision to shoot Batgirl was unrelated to the quality of the film.

The film, adapted from the adventures of the DC Comics character, starred Leslie Grace and Michael Keaton, who once again donned the Batman costume.

“We are saddened and shocked by the news. We can’t believe it,” Adil El Arbi and Bilal Fallah shared on Instagram.

“As filmmakers, it’s important that our work is shown to the public, and even if the film isn’t finished, we wanted fans around the world to be able to see and understand it,” added the two Belgians.

Much of post-production, the stage where special effects are added, is already complete.

Batgirl for life

In a statement on Instagram on Wednesday, actress Leslie Grace is “proud of the love, work and determination that all the incredible cast and tireless crew put into this film over seven months in Scotland.”

“I feel lucky to have worked among the greats and managed to create lifelong relationships,” added the actress.

In a statement, the Bad Boys for Life filmmakers paid tribute to the “fantastic actors” in the film’s poster.

“It was a privilege and an honor to be a part of (the DC Cinematic Universe), even for a short time. Batgirl forever,” they concluded.

The studio’s decision shocked the industry

The studio’s decision stunned Hollywood, where industry insiders said such a cancellation was unprecedented for a nearly finished work — and one that cost so much money, $90 million.

Batgirl seems to have been a casualty of the change in strategy following the merger of Warner Bros. and Discovery.

Warner Bros. plans to produce films intended for release directly on the HBO Max platform. But that choice, justified in part by the need to avoid movie theaters in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, was not unanimous, and appears to have been abandoned by the studios following the merger with Discovery.

According to industry experts cited by Variety, Batgirl would be considered too expensive for the tight-knit streaming industry, but not spectacular enough for the big screen, which would doom it to be scrapped.

A series of strange decisions in Warner Bros.

Anticipated by fans of DC Comics, “Batgirl” was supposed to show the adventures of this superheroine on the screen for the first time. The decision is all the more disappointing that, alongside Leslie Grace, the role of the antagonist Firefly was played by Brendan Fraser and Michael Keaton, who returned to the Batman suit.

This is not the first strange decision of the management of the new media conglomerate Warner Bros. Discovery, the result of the April merger of the parent companies that own Discovery and HBO Max.

Last month, HBO Max decided to remove a significant amount of original content created in Europe, including Romania, from its platform.

In addition to our country, the event included Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland), Central Europe, the Netherlands and Turkey.

Among the Romanian series that have already been removed from HBO Max are Hackerville, “Ruxx” and reality talent show “One True Singer”.

Even more surprisingly, season 3 of the popular series “Shadows” has been removed from the platform, although the first two are still available, according to Pagina de Media. However, Romanian feature films seem to be untouched by the decision so far.

As always, you can find more news from the world of movies and series, among other exciting news, in this weekend’s Nerd Alert column:

• Britain wants to bury nuclear waste in the sea / Russian cinemas demand to show pirated films / New spin-off “Rocky”