Coyote vs. Acme finally gets its big break

**Sammy Birch** (0:01)
N-P-R.

**Adrian Ma** (0:06)
Sammy Birch is a screenwriter in Hollywood. Back in 2020, she was in the running to work on the Warner Bros movie Coyote vs. Acme. There were a lot of meetings with studio executives.

**Sammy Birch** (0:16)
The last one I remember, almost like Ned Beatty in Network, I mean, that kind of long, I'm sure it wasn't like that, but just like a long table of people staring at me.

**Wailin Wong** (0:26)
She got hired in February and went to Warner Bros lot to meet with the director, Dave Green and producer Chris DeFaria.

**Adrian Ma** (0:32)
The three of them got out this big poster board and threw up note cards with script ideas written on them.

**Sammy Birch** (0:38)
Dave and I and Chris were just beginning the bones of like an outline and the tone and there were like hundreds of note cards that we put on the wall.

**Wailin Wong** (0:47)
That outline became a script. Actors got attached big names like SNL's Will Forte, WWE's John Cena, and TATBILB's Lana Condor. Oh, that stands for To All The Boys I've Loved Before, for those who don't know.

**Adrian Ma** (1:01)
LJ and Peter Kavinsky Forever.

**Wailin Wong** (1:04)
I love them. Anyway, the Coyote vs. Acme movie wrapped in 2022, and they arranged a release date for 2023

**Adrian Ma** (1:12)
Meanwhile, another movie Sammy had written had become a critical hit called May December. She was preparing for a big premiere, trying on dresses with a stylist when her manager called her to tell her that Coyote vs. Acme had been axed.

**Sammy Birch** (1:26)
Like, I came out dazed, you know.

**Adrian Ma** (1:29)
Were you literally wearing like a gala dress?

**Sammy Birch** (1:31)
Yeah, like, and it was so surreal. You know, it was like the tailor was like, oh, I'm so sorry.

**Wailin Wong** (1:37)
The word her manager actually used was destroyed. It wouldn't be quite that drastic in the end, but Coyote vs. Acme would go through an Odyssey-esque journey to the brink of destruction and back.

**Adrian Ma** (1:50)
This is The Indicator from Planet Money. I'm Samuel Horace Kessler.

**Wailin Wong** (1:53)
And I'm Waylon Wong. After three years in Cinematic Limbo, Coyote vs. Acme finally comes out on Friday.

**Adrian Ma** (2:00)
Today on the show, we have an update on our episode from 2023 We hear from the team behind the film who tell us what Coyote's latest misadventure says about the weird world of Hollywood economics.

**Wailin Wong** (2:11)
Plus how Coyote fell and rose again.

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**Adrian Ma** (3:27)
Hollywood producer Chris DeFaria first got into show business as a kid.

**Chris DeFaria** (3:31)
I was the voice of Peppermint Patty in the Peanuts TV shows.

**Wailin Wong** (3:35)
I cannot believe Chris featured so prominently in my childhood. I'm still getting over it.

**Adrian Ma** (3:42)
Years later, Chris went on to produce big budget movies like Gravity and Mad Max Fury Road, but he's always had a soft spot for animation.

**Chris DeFaria** (3:49)
I often say that live action movies are seeking, often an objective truth. Animation really is pursuing an emotional truth.

**Adrian Ma** (3:57)
Chris saw movies like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which blended live action and animation, as an inspiration. He went on to become one of the founders of Warner Bros' current animation division. And around seven years ago, when Warner Bros first floated the idea of a Wile E. Coyote movie, Chris was really excited to get on board.

**Wailin Wong** (4:15)
The movie was based off of a New Yorker humor piece where Coyote sues the Acme company. This is a company that supplies Coyote with the equipment for its failed schemes to get the road runner. In the movie, Coyote's lawyer is a personal injury attorney who says Acme's faulty products have harmed his client.