"Coyote Vs. Acme" will finally make it to big screens worldwide on August 28, 2026! The release date was confirmed at a "Coyote vs Acme" panel at 2025 San Diego Comic-Con, where a sneak peek of the movie and a teaser trailer was screened (despite the Acme Corporation's best efforts to prevent it). For "Looney Tunes" fans who once feared they'd never be able to see the movie, another year-ish is no wait at all.
The saga of "Coyote Vs. Acme" has gone on as long — and with as many back and forth moves
— as a genuine case of litigation. Like the titular coyote himself, the movie kept getting back up. Unlike Mr. Coyote, the movie is coming out on top.
"Coyote Vs. Acme" was directed by Dave Green ("Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows") and written by Samy Burch ("May December"), with "story by" credits from Burch, James Gunn, and Jeremy Slater. The picture will feature Wile E. Coyote and lawyer Kevin Avery (Will Forte) suing Acme, the manufacturer of the various gadgets that Wile always uses to try and catch the Road Runner. (The story was inspired by a 1990 New Yorker article with the same title and premise.)
That sounds like a funny premise! But due to circumstances surrounding its release, "Coyote vs. Acme" is now much more than a mere Looney Tunes adventure. For many, it represents a larger struggle between artistic control of filmmaking and corporate forces that wish to snuff it out.
Read more: 10 Completed Movies That Were Never Released
Coyote Vs. Acme Will Be Hitting Theaters In August 2026
"Coyote vs. Acme" was filmed back in 2022 and set for a July 21, 2023 release date. The release was later moved and "Barbie" slotted into the movie's place. (Could we have gotten "Acmeheimer" in this alternate timeline where the release date wasn't changed?)
Then, in November 2023, Warner Bros. Discovery announced it was shelving the completed movie to pre-emptively claim it as a loss and tax write-off. (Most of the "Coyote" crew were reportedly not informed of the shelving ahead of time; Green and "top producers" were informed only after the decision to shelve had been made.) "Coyote vs. Acme" was set to meet the same fate as "Batgirl" and "Scoob! Holiday Haunt," which WBD had shelved in 2022, i.e. barred from public screening in the name of creative accounting, an unprecedented move pioneered by WBD CEO David Zaslav.
It was reported days later that, following the public backlash, Warner Bros. had decided to sell the movie to a new distributor. But in February 2024, it came out that WBD. (who had been asking $75-80 million for the movie) was not moving ahead with the sale, and was instead pushing forward with the cancellation.
Per a reported conversation (via TheWrap) between producer Chris DeFaria and an anonymous Warner Bros., the studio wanted to put the whole controversy "behind" them, meaning burying the movie. But audiences didn't forgive and forget. Cast members, including Eric Bauza (the modern voice of Bugs Bunny), issued public calls for the movie's release. There were even calls for a Warner Bros. whistleblower to release the movie to the public. That didn't happen, but the sustained interest paid off.
In March 2025, it was confirmed that Ketchup Entertainment was in negotiations to acquire "Coyote vs Acme" from WBD. The deal then went through later that month. Ketchup Entertainment had previously distributed "The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie" after acquiring rights from Warner Bros. It remains to be seen if the pressure campaign to release "Coyote vs. Acme" will translate into box office success, but the fact it's not being buried is a win for art itself.
"Coyote vs. Acme" is scheduled for theatrical release on August 28, 2026.
If you're looking for the easiest way to keep up with all the major movie and TV news, why not sign up to our free newsletter?
Read the original article on SlashFilm.
