Will Forte Talks Overdue Arrival of ‘Coyote vs. Acme’: Looney Tunes Has ‘Always Been Subversive’

Never had Will Forte found himself so caught between art and commerce. The former Saturday Night Live star had received a call in November 2023 inviting him to a screening of the new Looney Tunes movie he’d just made, Coyote vs. Acme . Test audiences had loved it, and the producers were excited to finally share it with the whole cast. The very next day, like an anvil falling from the sky, Forte and his collaborators were crushed by the news that Warner Bros, the film’s studio, had decided to shelve the movie for a tax write-off .

The private screening still went ahead, though in the days leading up to it, Forte began to think, “It must not be as good as the producers thought. Maybe they were too close to it.”

That uncertainty evaporated quickly. In Coyote vs. Acme , Forte plays a hapless personal injury lawyer who helps Wile E. Coyote sue the Acme Corporation over their myriad products (rocket skates, bombs, catapults, anvils, etc.) that have backfired on him in his pursuit of the Roadrunner. Forte, and everyone else in the room, loved it, and as the lights went up, doubt and melancholy turned into frustration and confusion.

“We’re all kind of looking around at each other, like, ‘What the fuck is going on here?’” he tells Rolling Stone , adding. “You’re telling yourself, ‘I love this so much, this is so great, this is a movie my kids can see,’ and you forget, ‘Oh, right. This is a funeral screening.’”

The decision to can Coyote vs. Acme did cause an uproar . The creative team spoke out, as did industry folks who’d seen the film, like Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the directing team behind blockbusters like Project Hail Mary and the Spider-Verse movies. Warner Bros. made some hay about shopping the movie to another studio, but it wasn’t until March 2025 that the independent production and distribution company Ketchup Entertainment secured the rights . Nearly three years later, Coyote vs. Acme — which is every bit as delightful, thoughtful, and funny as those who were at the funeral screening insisted it was — will arrive in theaters on Aug. 28. Editor’s picks The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century

Like the 1988 classic, Who Framed Roger Rabbit , Coyote vs. Acme boasts an expert mix of live action and animation. And also like Who Framed Roger Rabbit , it’s a family-friendly comedy unafraid of weightier ideas. Embracing the Sisyphean conundrum that simmers beneath all pf Wile E. Coyote’s futile, slapstick efforts to catch the Roadrunner, it’s very much a movie about learning to fail. It’s also about the cost of “progress,” corporate greed and indifference to suffering as Forte’s character, Kevin Avery, and Wile E. Coyote stumble upon a larger Acme conspiracy. (The movie also stars John Cena as Acme’s lead lawyer, as well as Lana Condor as Kevin’s niece and legal partner.)

That Coyote vs. Acme was briefly shelved by not dissimilar forces is almost too on the nose.