Batgirl: star urges WB to salvage the canceled movie

The situation surrounding the cancelation of the Batgirl movie continues to showcase both those involved with the production and fans alike voicing their disapproval of the decision made by CEO David Zaslav. Recently, there was a report of a “funeral screening” for the cast and crew of what footage there is before it is to be locked away in a vault or – God Forbid – destroyed. If the film is destroyed, it’ll be to guarantee to the IRS that the WB will not be making any kind of profit from it and, therefore, will remain a tax write-off.

Recently, one of the film’s stars took to Twitter to voice their personal feelings in a letter to CEO David Zaslav himself. Ivory Aquino, who was to play Alysia Yeoh in the Batgirl film, broke silence on the matter to address the business of it all and attempt to appeal to Zaslav’s sentiment and goodwill.

There are so many moving pieces to a movie and so much business that goes into it that it’s hardly ever that a studio would shelve a film so late into the process. The directors, Bilall Fallah and Adil El Arbi, recently tried to capture the footage via their cell phones, but the footage was blocked on the studio’s servers. The directors and Batgirl herself, Leslie Grace, have expressed their disappointment and seem to be going through a grieving period. But it is Aquino who has explicitly tried to reach out to Zaslav and the studio itself.

In Aquino’s tweets, the Batgirl star thinks this whole ordeal can even be good promotion for the movie, stating, “If a month ago, there wasn’t a marketing budget for Batgirl, I’d venture to say that that has been taken care of by the turn of events these past few weeks.”

Aquino even lends sympathy to Zaslav as he’s in charge of making the difficult decisions in a rough financial phase of the company after the merger, saying, “I can only endeavor to understand how one feels when tasked with tending to the bottom line like you have. I can’t even begin to imagine what one in your position goes through having such great responsibility to attend to.”

However, it seems as if this situation is just too personal as Aquino’s father had passed just before the production, and the theme of the movie relies on a father-daughter relationship. 

Aquino’s letter can be seen below:

Do you agree with Aquino that the film should be salvaged? Let us know in the comments!

Source: Twitter

About the Author

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E.J. is a News Editor at JoBlo, as well as a Video Editor, Writer, and Narrator for some of the movie retrospectives on our JoBlo Originals YouTube channel, including Reel Action, Revisited and some of the Top 10 lists. He is a graduate of the film program at Missouri Western State University with concentrations in performance, writing, editing and directing.