It seems like nearly everyone sided against Warner Bros. when the studio made the decision to shelve Coyote Vs. Acme, as the family film was already completed. Much like Batgirl, despite what the final product’s reception would turn out to be, the work of the artists involved in the production seemingly went on just to become a tax write-off. Warners is now producing a new animated version of the Dr. Seuss classic, The Cat in the Hat, and the team behind the upcoming film would take a surprising stand on the issue.
According to Deadline, The Cat in the Hat creatives have defended Warner Bros. on making the decision to shelve Coyote Vs. Acme, saying that the situation should not “become representative of how painful and atrocious the industry can be.” Co-director and co-writer of Cat in the Hat, Alessandro Carloni, recently spoke at a Work in Progression session at Annecy where he explained that he had landed six film directing roles in his career, but only got to finish two of them. He expounds, “It’s that kind of industry. You have to go with the frustration. We are lucky to do art in our profession but we can’t lock ourselves in a basement and paint a painting. We get to do things that are huge and expensive and it is a business.”
Carloni continued to say that while “some of us are unlucky to have lost projects,” he would also warn against “one specific case” becoming “representative of how painful and atrocious the industry can be.” Erica Rivinoja, who picked up the other half of the co-writing and co-directing duties on Cat in the Hat stated that audiences can do a very simple thing to help movies avoid cancellations: “Go to the movies. Go to the big ones, go to the small ones, don’t just stream them.”
While the live-action The Cat in the Hat from 2003 resides in infamy with critics and audiences alike, the Dr. Seuss story will get re-adapted into an animated feature, much like 2018’s The Grinch. Saturday Night Live star Bill Hader plays the Cat, with Quinta Brunson (Abbott Elementary, Miracle Workers), Bowen Yang (Saturday Night Live, Fire Island, Wicked), Xochitl Gomez (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, The Baby-Sitters Club), Matt Berry (What We Do in The Shadows, The IT Crowd) and Paula Pell (Girls5eva, Saturday Night Live) starring as primary cast members.
