Kalyn Corrigan
When Samy Burch joined the Coyote vs. Acme filmmaking team, she didn’t expect for her art to imitate life. Previously known for her Oscar-nominated script, May December, the screenwriter was just thrilled at the prospect of being presented with a new challenge: crafting a movie for kids. However, when Warner Bros. announced that they would be shelving the fully finished live action/animated hybrid as a $30 million tax write-off in 2023, Burch was surprised to find that her sorrow was shared by the masses — and that they weren’t going to be quiet about their disappointment.
Overwhelming online outrage flooded social media with cries of injustice. Along with Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah’s Batgirl and the fully animated Scoob! Holiday Haunt, Coyote would’ve been the third film in as many years to be canceled by WB to implement deep cost-cutting measures. Perhaps that’s why fans and creators expressed such intense anger over the studio’s latest decision to scrap yet another project in the name of saving a few extra bucks. Maybe it’s because there had been whispers of the Coyote movie actually being wildly entertaining — or perchance, everyone was just really tired of watching these real-life David v. Goliath battles play out, time and time again, with no one taking a stand to support the little guy.
Samy Burch (Courtesy of Ketchup Entertainment)
Regardless of the reason, fans rushed to the internet to voice their concern, filmmakers used their platform to speak up about this chilling showcase of corporate power, and some even quite literally took to the streets to make it known that they weren’t backing down without a fight. Recently unmasked as Marco Vaccaro, a lone protestor dressed in a Wile E. Coyote suit braved the rainy Los Angeles weather in March of 2025 to stand in front of the Warner Bros. lot and picket the studio’s inequity, holding up a sign that said, “Release Me!!”
As the weeks turned into months, and the months turned into years, the movement showed no signs of stopping. WB eventually caved and reversed its stance, agreeing to allow filmmakers to shop the project around and let it be released by another distributor. Enter Ketchup Entertainment, a considerably smaller company than Warner Bros. Discovery, which swooped in and saved the day, acquiring the rights to the film for $50 million and giving the feature a proper theatrical release.
Now, Coyote vs. Acme has finally, thankfully, been unleashed for all audiences to see, and the result is a nearly perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes and a staggering $15 million opening weekend at the box office domestically. This marks the biggest debut for the independent distributor ever, passing their previous best for The Day the Earth Blew Up, a Looney Tunes feature that opened to $3.5 million. As news of the little coyote that could takes the world by storm, it’s clear not only that the sky is the limit for these filmmakers, but also that the impact of grit can tear down even the tallest walls.
“It’s really wonderful,” says writer Burch. “It’s been so, so lovely. I saw it completed at the premiere a few days ago, and that was amazing. That was a 1,400-seat theater, and half of the people just bought tickets because they’re members of the American Cinematheque, which I love, it’s an amazing institution. It really felt like you were seeing it with a big group of people, and that was an amazing thrill.”
Born and raised in Los Angeles as the daughter of a casting director and a film development executive, Burch spent most of her formative years following in the footsteps of her parents, working on short films, and filling out the cast for bigger productions, like The Hunger Games franchise. In 2019, Burch shifted gears and completed her screenplay for the feature film May December, which was then directed by filmmaking titan Todd Haynes and starred icons Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman. It seemed that Burch had finally found her true path in Hollywood, and it was time to celebrate — and then the actors’ strike happened. “All the actors weren’t allowed to come to the premiere or do anything,” she recalls.
A still from “Coyote vs. Acme.” (Courtesy of Ketchup Entertainment)
Around the same time, Burch was also getting involved in Coyote vs. Acme. “Dave [Green] got hired on the movie, I think in December of 2019, and then I was hired in February of 2020,” remembers Burch. “We had about a couple of weeks going to the lot, which was very fun, and then everything shut down because of COVID. Then it was all in my apartment.”
Despite her many setbacks, Burch embodies a similar relentless tenacity as the cartoon counterpart she vivifies. In other words, she put her head down and got to work. Although the Coyote property changed hands a few times over the years, with initial production on the project dating as far back as 2018, in the end, Burch took sole screenwriting credit, with Jeremy Slater and James Gunn sharing credit for the story.
Principal photography was shot from March to May 2022 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, before visual effects and computer animation were added by DNEG for Wile E. Coyote and other classic Looney Tunes characters, and the movie was scheduled to be released on July 21, 2023.
Then, on April 26, 2022, Warner Bros. suddenly removed Coyote vs. Acme from the release schedule.
“I was really shocked,” says Burch about hearing the news. “I was especially shocked because our test screenings had gone so well, and those aren’t my metrics. You know, I’m not in Burbank with a clipboard. That seemed like their metrics. So, I was not expecting it.”
In a strange series of insane highs and lows, Burch found that overlapping events had a sense of irony. “I got the call on the same day as the actors’ strike ended. So there had been this really great news happening.” The writer remembered what it had been like to premiere her previous film May December without the attendance of her cast, and was relieved that this time, her movie could finally be commemorated with all of the wonderful faces who lit up the screen and brought her words to life. “It was like, they can come! It was this big fun moment. Then, an hour later, I got the call about this. It was like a whole career in about an hour and a half, of the ups and downs.”
Behind the scenes of “Coyote vs. Acme.” (Courtesy of Ketchup Entertainment)
She adds, “It just was hard to not think about Dave Green, the director, who I know up close how much energy, work and care was put into this, how much time. That was just so sad to see. Also, I mean, I think about a thousand people worked on this. I don’t actually know if that’s right, but it must be, when you can count all the animators and everything. It’s so many people in the cast alone. I know there were probably about 30 or 40 day players in New Mexico. For every person, it’s important to have that credit to go to the next movie, or to be able to have it for your reel, or anything like that. The ripples were long.”
Faced with feelings of insurmountable loss, everyone who worked on Coyote gathered together to share a “funeral” screening of their movie, knowing that it would never be seen by any eyes other than their own.
“What was interesting was it was on the lot, because they wouldn’t let the movie off the lot,” Burch says. “It had been initially on the schedule for Will Forte to see the movie, and then it just kind of got taken over where they filled the audience with either people who worked on it, or friends of people who worked on it. Filmmakers like [Phil] Lord and [Christopher] Miller were there, and Jason Woliner, and other comedy and animation directors came.”
Burch laughs, “It felt like we were sneaking in there, because it was on the lot. But it got such a great response. My sister was there. John Early came. It was a really warm environment. And it was so fun to watch, especially with some of the actors. Will [Forte] and Lana [Condor] walk in there going, ‘Well, is this going to be an embarrassment? And I’ll be glad that it’s in the vault?’ And by the end going, ‘Why is this happening? The movie’s so good. Why? Why is it being hidden from everyone for eternity?’ That’s what we thought at the time. So, it had a really interesting energy. I was very happy to be there for that.”
Behind the scenes of “Coyote vs. Acme.” (Courtesy of Ketchup Entertainment)
In the midst of her grief, Burch noticed that there seemed to be a large outpouring of support from Looney Tunes fans and cinephiles alike from all over the world. At first, it just started out as another event going viral with copious amounts of Tweets and TikToks, but over time, the internet sensation appeared to take form in the real world, and it looked as though the scales might actually tip in her favor.
“It was pretty immediate that it felt bigger than just a small group of people being noisy,” Burch recollects. “It felt like a lot of people. I remember being in New York for a screening of something else, and then getting a call, and going out into the cold, and talking to Dave, and him saying, ‘With all of this energy, we’re hearing they might consider selling the movie.’ He was like, ‘Don’t tell anyone.’ It was very much like being in a movie, like a thriller. Like, oh my goodness.”
With this being the third time that Warner Bros. had canceled a finished film for tax purposes, what exactly is it about Coyote vs. Acme that lit a fire under everyone’s feet?
“I think it was a combination of things,” muses Burch. “Some people have a relationship with these characters. I mean, Wile E. Coyote and all of the Looney Tunes, they are older than probably everyone that was upset by quite a margin.”
A still from “Coyote vs. Acme.” (Courtesy of Ketchup Entertainment)
The screenwriter is also quick to point out that many of the filmmakers who attended their funeral screening of Coyote spoke out about what a masterpiece the movie was, and how shelving such a stunning piece of work was tantamount to treason. “There were some amazing directors that had come to the funeral screening that spoke out and said, ‘This is not bad. This is good. This does not suck. There’s no reason for this,’ and I think that was extremely helpful. And then I think there were just people who felt like this was wrong to do, on some level about art and business. It really did feel wrong. I think with all three of those things combined, it really became this tidal wave that was so unexpected, even from us. We were sad, but it really felt like a much bigger thing than us. It was amazing to experience.”
Burch also wishes to express her gratitude to Vaccaro, the coyote-suited protestor who petitioned outside of Warner Bros. on that stormy day back in 2022. “I’m extremely thankful to the Wile E. Coyote suit guy,” she smiles. “That did feel like a really interesting, defining moment in this chapter, because that was so late in the game, and it was such a rainy day in LA, and he’s in a wet fur suit, you know? I’m very grateful to that person.”
In the film, Wile E. Coyote hires ambulance chaser Kevin Avery (Forte) and his settlement mill law firm Avery, Jones & Maltese (a tongue-in-cheek callback to Tex Avery, Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese) to sue the Acme Corporation for all damages incurred while using their myriad faulty products. Much to his chagrin, Wile finds that his lawyer Kevin nonchalantly assesses his situation with the same assembly-line approach that he uses for all of his cartoon clients, claiming that he can win the critter a few hundred dollars before calling it a day.
A still from “Coyote vs. Acme.” (Courtesy of Ketchup Entertainment)
Frustrated with his countless attempts to catch his nemesis, the Road Runner, and the wacky ways in which the Acme products always fail him in his pursuits, Wile sneaks a slew of the half-cocked commodities into his box of evidence, thereby forcing all of the complaints to be filed together. As a result, Kevin and his intern/niece Paige Avery (Condor) suddenly find themselves saddled with the task of proving causal connection to a plethora of products, meaning that their run-of-the-mill throwaway case just graduated into a massive liability lawsuit against the biggest company in the world.
Originally based on The New Yorker writer Ian Frazier’s satirical essay from 1990, the movie centers around the same basic premise: Wile suing Acme over their malfunctioning products in a huge lawsuit. Given the fact that over thirty years later (70+ years, if you’re counting the original inception of the toon), the same cartoon character still resonates with audiences, Burch can’t help but meditate on the lasting power of Wile E. Coyote.
“He’s so sympathetic, even though he is technically a predator,” she says with a grin. “He just looks so hungry. He has so much want and determination. I think there is something that’s very relatable about that to a lot of people. He’s so slender, it doesn’t feel like his want is coming from greed. It’s coming from something else.”
As far as fleshing out the two-dimensional character for the big screen, Burch was excited to put her own spin on the classics, while still paying homage to certain characteristics that had become canon, like the fact that Wile keeps mum and only speaks through a “limited number of signs,” as he himself so hilariously points out in the movie.
A still from “Coyote vs. Acme.” (Courtesy of Ketchup Entertainment)
“That was one of our earliest conversations,” reflects Burch on Wile’s humorous commitment to his trademark signage. “Let’s commit to the classic silent Wile E. Coyote when he’s with the Road Runner, and not have him talk. That was a joke, but that was also the rule that we had made of really being thoughtful about what signs he can have, and when, and when to maybe break that rule a little bit, if it dramatically makes sense.”
In order to successfully pen a quietly chaotic character, Burch found inspiration in some truly surprising places. “We would definitely look to Charlie Chaplin,” she reminisces. “I also looked at movies that were very different from this, but that had a mute character. I remember rewatching Sweet and Lowdown and The Piano, and these fantastic movies where somebody couldn’t communicate, and see how you keep their emotions and their intentions very present without words.”
Writing for an animated character who interacts with a live-action character was a unique hurdle Burch faced while working on the script, and one she welcomed wholeheartedly. “I think a lot of the challenge with writing for Wile was just keeping him very alive on the page,” she surmises. “On set, they had this amazing puppeteer, Dave Barclay, who had the right-size Wile puppet. They kept him very alive while shooting, because it’s really easy to then just focus on the humans that are there in front of you, and not this character, who really is the lead of the film. That way, in a practical sense, if he was talking with Kevin, it would never just read as Kevin doing a monologue. It was like dialogue, but more in italics of what Wile is feeling, or what he would have said, or what he does — just so he’s present.”
Behind the scenes of “Coyote vs. Acme.” (Courtesy of Ketchup Entertainment)
Looking back at her evolution from writing the script for May December in her coat closet — a script that went on to become Oscar-nominated — to current day, basking in the glow of her recent victory, Burch feels as though she’s learned a thing or two about the power of an iron will. Unintentionally mirroring the struggles of the cartoony champion she drafted, the screenwriter feels strongly that this message of unwavering resolve is more important than ever before.
“Dave and I felt that the message needed to be protected in the process of writing a studio movie, and doing draft after draft, because a lot of things can veer towards something that’s more cynical, or something that is just comedy,” she explains. “We wanted to make sure there was a lot of laughter, and then just something that could be taken away from.”
Each day, the Coyote chases the Road Runner to no avail, but he never stops his pursuit. As Forte’s Kevin so valiantly speechifies in the film, the Coyote would never think of quitting, and we should all be inspired by that. “From the beginning, really, that was my approach of looking at who Wile E. Coyote is,” says the screenwriter. “Like, what’s his spirit, what can be learned from this about persistence, and failing, and how there’s value in that.”
When asked if there might be plans for a sequel in the works, Burch says she thinks that’s “pretty unlikely,” but jests, “I will say I was always pitching an after-the-credits scene of a trailer for another legal thriller. I really liked the title All the President’s Rabbits — but that’s really as far as I’ve gotten.”
“Coyote vs. Acme” is in theaters now.