Kevin Smith still wants to see the “Batgirl” movie.
On the new episode of his podcast “Hollywood Babble-On”, the “Clerks” director shared his reaction to news that Warner Bros. is scrapping the superhero movie.
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$90 million had already been spent on the film, which was set to be released direct to streaming on HBO Max in the U.S. later this year. Leslie Grace of “In the Heights” as to star as Batgirl.
“It’s an incredibly bad look to cancel the Latina ‘Batgirl’ movie,” Smith said. “I don’t give a s**t if the movie was absolute f**king dog s**t – I guarantee you that it wasn’t. The two directors [Bilall Fallah and Adil El Arbi] who directed that movie did a couple of episodes of ‘Ms. Marvel,’ and it was a wonderful f**king show and they had more money to do ‘Batgirl’ than they had to do an episode of ‘Ms. Marvel’ and stuff.”
Warner Bros. explained that the film was cancelled due to a shift in direction for the DC Expanded Universe (DCEU), with a renewed focus on theatrical blockbusters, rather that lower-budget streaming offerings.
“I love all the CW shows, but the CW shows show their budgetary constraints,” Smith said of the concerns. “They said ‘Batgirl’ looked too cheap because it was a $90-million movie. How do you make a cheap-looking $90-million movie? If it looked slightly better than an episode of ‘Arrow’ then why couldn’t we see that?”
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Even more confusing for Smith is the fact that the studio cancelled “Batgirl”, while seemingly continuing with plans to release the upcoming “Flash” movie, starring Ezra Miller, who has faced a number of legal issues, along with allegations of sexual abuse and more.
“That is the baffling thing,” the director said. “I don’t give a s**t how bad the ‘Batgirl’ movie is, nobody in that movie is complicated or has anything in their real life you have to market around. In ‘The Flash’ movie, we all know there’s a big problem! Flash is the Reverse-Flash in real life.”
“The Flash” is currently scheduled for release on June 23, 2023.