 The holidays are cancelled.
Or at least, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Scoob! Holiday Haunt's release has sadly been cancelled. This is due to budgetary restrictions that arose with the recent Warner Brothers Discovery merger. The film's budget was 40 million dollars, but Warner Brothers executives determined that they could no longer justify the funding for this film, and thus pulled the film from the lineup of HBO Max's original programming. It is unknown if Velma will be affected by this announcement of cutbacks and budgetary restrictions. However, this could provide some insight into why we have not gotten any announcements for DTVs, since perhaps WB felt they could not justify releasing direct-to-video films when they are financially struggling due to the merger. Warner Brothers Discovery CEO David Zaslav shared with the press that Warner Brothers is currently attempting to shift to a "cost savings" model, focusing more on theatrical films rather than streaming and direct-to-video projects. Zaslav stated he feels that the majority of streaming projects "no longer make financial sense" under the new vision for Warner Brothers. Batgirl, another big budget film ($90 million dollars) was additionally scrapped despite that filming had been completed.
85 Comments
Mystery5
8/2/2022 06:21:16 pm
Worst. News. Ever. Guess no new Scooby media (shows or movies) this year. What a year to be a Scooby-Doo fan. 8/3/2022 10:38:49 am
It is absolutely horrible news. Who would have ever thought this would happen after all of the content we got last year?
A Dude
8/2/2022 06:21:30 pm
I hate SCOOB as much as any other sane person would, but this... this is sad news.
Becker
8/3/2022 01:30:51 am
Do we know it really looked awesome though? All they ever released from it was one frame. And the test screenings reportedly didn't do well. (Plus other elements inside it that interfere with Discovery's plans for the DCEU). 8/3/2022 10:39:48 am
It would be nice if they could still be released somehow, but I sadly don't think that will happen.
Gibby Norton
8/2/2022 06:42:00 pm
I’m very very disheartened by this news. The movie was near-completion, just needing post-production work done. And even the director on Twitter (at the time that I am typing this) is acting very confused about the whole thing meaning that they were not made aware. I understand that maybe it wouldn’t be financially viable on HBO Max, but they aren’t cutting losses by leaving the movie unreleased.
John Locke
8/2/2022 06:46:54 pm
Honestly, on Batgirl I'd been hearing the opposite regarding the test screenings, granted everything is a mess right now but yea... this one hurts...
Becker
8/3/2022 01:25:36 am
The test screening were actually not that good for Batgirl. And Discovery want to change the whole direction of the DCEU right now on top of that. 8/3/2022 10:43:46 am
I'm extremely disheartened by this as well. I will say one thing, that WB does not seem to do a good job informing everyone of big decisions like this before they happen. The voice actors had to read online that they weren't going to be involved in SCOOB!, not to mention JCB being kept in the dark about when things were airing for most Be Cool and having aspects of episodes he wrote changed without informing him...so yeah, they don't seem to have the best track record with things like this.
John Locke
8/2/2022 06:49:00 pm
This worries me, if it was indeed in post production it wouldn't have cost much more to finish and get some money off of it. Damn, already been noticing the e-mails from warner archive slowing down, this, and not too much on the horizon, this is gonna be a rough few years to be a fan of anything WB owns.... 8/3/2022 11:00:48 am
I'm very worried for the future of the franchise given this. It really surprises me they'd cancel it post-production, since as you said, I would think it would be more of a waste of money to just cancel it after they already spent the money filming.
John Locke
8/3/2022 12:14:46 pm
There's a few things at play, if you don't release it you can claim it as a tax write off, which I think they feel is their best option when you also combine that with the thought of "we can't let the prior regime have a win!" that seems to take hold when new people take over... But as a fan of Doom patrol and DC in general, I'm now really worried, and Warner Archive was a fantastic place to get a lot of of things that probably wouldn't have otherwise been released. 8/3/2022 05:27:00 pm
Ah I wasn't aware they could use it as a tax write off. That makes a lot more sense. I'm guessing the new "cost effective" model doesn't include continuing to release things via Warner Archive, so I'm quite worried as well. It's very unfortunate they've chosen to go that route with things.
John Locke
8/3/2022 06:08:24 pm
It's gotten worse, and tomorrow we may get more news, oh well, good luck for scoob and fans of things in general right now. 8/3/2022 10:09:00 pm
By "it's gotten worse" do you just mean that it's come out that the Batgirl cast wasn't told the film was cancelled, or was there something else?
John Locke
8/4/2022 09:55:58 am
Nah, already knew that, Today is apparently a shareholder meeting, there's rumors that say WB is moving away from pretty much all scripted content so even the HBO Max shows could be on the chopping block, so today we'll probably find that out for sure. 8/4/2022 10:30:41 am
Oh wow, I hope they don't cancel any of the shows! It will be interesting to see what happens.
John Locke
8/4/2022 10:58:27 am
I should clarify, they seem to mean moving away from streaming scripted shows, things for like HBO Max so things like Doom Patrol, Titans...Possibly Harley Quinn, depending how it airing on tv went, tv currently seems fine, and that's one of the problems with the movies they cancelled, they didn't think they'd make enough money on streaming to justify the cost. Things made for tv first should be fine... for now anyway. 8/4/2022 02:13:53 pm
Good to hear, although it sadly won't help Scooby at all since the two series we have announced were supposed to be direct-to-streaming.
Lamont
8/2/2022 07:04:31 pm
Words cannot describe, how pissed I am… 8/3/2022 11:01:23 am
Same, it's really frustrating to have this happen given this was in post-production.
Lamont
8/3/2022 10:10:47 pm
I just hate that all their hard work just went down the drain. I hope there’s another way to save this project, cause I was really looking forward to this. I loved SCOOB, even though SCOOB didn’t have the Scooby Doo formula, this movie seemed like it did. 8/3/2022 10:19:16 pm
Me too! It makes me really sad that they just dumped this after it was nearly completed. I'm really hoping that there's another way to save this project too, as I was also a big fan of SCOOB.
Drakosleuth
8/2/2022 07:29:58 pm
This is very upsetting, I'm actually upset about this. :(
Becker
8/3/2022 01:28:08 am
They're not gonna change their minds, the decision is taken, the movie got the axe. The new Discovery management at DC are making big changes to their universes.
Becker
8/3/2022 01:53:53 am
I meant management at WB* 8/3/2022 11:03:23 am
I think Drakosleuth meant change their minds about the philosophy, but I also don't think that will happen under the new CEO, unfortunately.
Matt
8/2/2022 08:02:20 pm
Damn… I can’t say I am shocked, but I am disappointed 8/2/2022 09:40:43 pm
Maybe WB will make for up for this with a workout spinoff for Daphne 💜
Becker
8/3/2022 01:17:23 am
If you think this is a waste, they also canceled the Batgirl movie, which was completely done and finished already, $80m, which was announced alongside Holiday Haunt yesterday. 8/3/2022 11:04:09 am
I kind of wonder what ever happened to the HB Cinematic Universe. They'd talked about it with SCOOB, but then we never heard anything again. Jellystone! kind of gave us this, to an extent.
Becker
8/3/2022 11:30:17 am
With the fairly poor reception of Scoob from most fans and critics (including the non-Scooby characters that were being set up for other movies with an even more poorer reaction than the Scooby gang themselves, except Dastardly), and the idea of a HBCU itself being pretty silly in all fairness, I think Discovery didn't see enough potential in it, so they've canceled all plans for it. We hadn't heard any news about further development of any entries inside this HBCU since Scoob came out except for Holiday Haunt, which was greenlit under AT&T.
Becker
8/3/2022 11:37:10 am
Even much poorer reaction* 8/3/2022 05:28:16 pm
I personally quite enjoyed SCOOB!, even though I know many didn't, so I was especially disappointed by this announcement. 8/3/2022 11:02:14 am
I didn't want to say it, but this decision also made me wonder if it's going to back to a dry spell of Scooby like during the 90s. I certainly hope not. At least we still have the comics, for those interested in them.
ScoobyVerse
8/2/2022 11:16:42 pm
Goodbye Holiday Haunt, terrible Warner Brothers is going to write you off for tax purposes. If we weren’t supposed to get sequels, fine. But no point in putting a almost finished film back into WB vault to never be legally used again. You could just do a shadow release on HBO Max, as much as it pains me, don’t do a home media release after that to save resources. But the crew and cast deserve to have their film seen in public viewing. They deserve it and worked hard for it. So much heart to be put away. Most other DTV’s have been vaulted as well too, most likely. Scooby-Doo is going to be without content for a while if there’s anything to say. HBO Max content is not going to be worth very much to WB so Mystery Pups and Velma are gone. Especially since Mystery Pups was so early on, but even then it doesn’t matter at that point….WB is cancelling on a finished film. A shame and pity Warner Brothers is rummaging so low and hurting a lot of people. 8/3/2022 11:06:20 am
I completely agree with your thoughts. It feels punitive to just dump the movie when it was so close to being finished. Most of the money was already spent, so there was no point to just give it the axe. I love your point about the cast and crew as well. It must be devastating for them to have put all that work into the film just for it to never see the light of day. I'm not entirely ready to give up on Velma and Mystery Pups yet, but I am worried about it. I would have said they probably are going ahead with Velma since they've started, but clearly that means nothing since they just dumped Holiday Haunt when it was nearly finished.
Becker
8/3/2022 11:21:44 am
I think the shows will be fine, movies are the ones that seem to receive big changes. Plus, Mystery Pups was announced under the new management of Discovery, and Mindy Kaling held a panel for Velma earlier this year and even revealed an image and apparently some exclusive footage. So I think the series are all good, but I could be wrong, with what happened to Holiday Haunt. 8/3/2022 05:29:59 pm
I could easily see them axing Krypto and Trick or Treat, since they're not necessarily cost-effective. With the shows, I was more worried in the sense that if they choose to stop creating original streaming films on HBO Max, it could drive down the number of subscribers, which in turn could make them downsize the app and not create as much new content for it since they're not getting enough money from it.
Mr Neither
8/2/2022 11:35:33 pm
Well, that's Christmas ruined. WB can go fuck themselves. 8/3/2022 11:07:37 am
The year-end post I do every year of the top 10 things that happened in the franchise is not looking good lol. Currently it's just going to be a four-word post: "nothing happened this year" haha.
Mr Neither
8/4/2022 07:55:23 am
Not true, we did get the Mystery Incorporated fan pilot, some comics and hopefully by the end we'll all have our Scooby Doo board games from C'mon games to boot. 8/4/2022 10:48:31 am
Very true, I was just being silly tbh lol. We got Multiversus now too, and looks like we're getting Trick or Treat as well.
Mr Neither
8/5/2022 04:57:46 am
I'll believe Trickor Treat when I see a trailer. 8/5/2022 02:42:13 pm
That's fair, I guess the reason why I jumped on the "it's real" bandwagon is that it's listed by Amazon, which isn't user-generated. Given it's a different director, it seems like it could be real. Then again, Amazon US still has a completely-made up description for Music of the Vampire that's been up for 10 years, so who knows lol.
Becker
8/3/2022 01:22:42 am
We're finally seeing the changes Discovery wants to make at WB, not only with the Hanna Barbera Cinematic Universe, but also especially with the direction of the DC Extended Universe. It's clear now that Scoob 2 won't happen either. The ship is officially being steered in a different direction, let's see where this is going, this is gonna be interesting. 8/3/2022 01:59:58 am
We should make a plea to Warner Brothers Discovery on YouTube,
James Dixon
8/3/2022 10:45:09 am
I really did underestimate what could happen from Warner Bros. Discovery, didn't I? 8/3/2022 11:08:39 am
I never would have expected these kinds of changes. I'm very worried for the future of this franchise, because at this point, I feel like every project we've heard about is fair game to be cancelled.
James Dixon
8/3/2022 04:43:04 am
It may have been more viable if it had been in 2-D and/or made for Cartoon Network. WarnerMedia was banking too much on HBO Max, a streaming service that is not worldwide. So, then they'd have to make these deals with other people to get their stuff aired to make up the profit they're losing by making it exclusive to a service that is by default always going to be losing money because they have yet to make it worldwide. 8/3/2022 11:09:49 am
I hadn't thought about it in the sense of Ezra Miller, but I suppose the decision to cancel Holiday Haunt could be connected. That would be pretty sad if it were the case.
Becker
8/3/2022 11:35:38 am
Ezra Miller is an absolute scum of the earth, but I don't think there was such a trickle down effect to where the star of a live-action theatrical Flash film resulted in the cancelation of an animated streaming Scooby-Doo film. That just sounds very far-fetched. I don't think there any correlation between both Batgirl and Holiday Haunt getting the axe, it's purely just Zaslav wanting the steer the 2 separate ships of HB and DC in different directions at the same time.
Becker
8/3/2022 11:40:56 am
Wanting to steer*
James Dixon
8/3/2022 12:20:30 pm
I don't think I was thinking at the time when I said about Ezra Miller. It's of course more down to the restructuring of Warner Bros. Discovery, who now has a new boss who doesn't view HBO Max in the same light as the old boss did, so Holiday Haunt is just causality of that change. 8/3/2022 05:34:35 pm
That was kind of my thought as well; if Zaslav gets too crazy with his philosophy I could easily see him cancelling streaming shows as well if he deems them "not cost effective." Velma has already received a lot of controversy, so I could see him dumping that show as well if he feels not enough people will like it to justify finishing production on it.
James Dixon
8/3/2022 12:22:40 pm
Of course, what is going on with Ezra Miller doesn't help.
James Dixon
8/3/2022 05:19:00 am
Doesn't look good for "Scooby-Doo and Krypto, Too," then.
Becker
8/3/2022 08:11:33 am
Nor Trick or Treat if that's still a thing
Becker
8/4/2022 08:54:56 am
(I'm happy to eat my words here) 8/3/2022 11:11:40 am
I honestly think they cancelled Krypto. Now would have been the time to release it with the DC Super Pets film, and given the new CEO's philosophy that no streaming films are financially viable, I can't imagine he'd deem a direct-to-video project like Krypto Too worthwhile.
Jayden
8/3/2022 06:54:50 am
Damn so this is looking like a year with no Scooby movie...It's been over 20 years the last time that happened. 2/3 into 2022 and still no trailer or nothing to any scooby movie. 8/3/2022 11:13:15 am
It's really hard to believe that we've gotten no Scooby content. If we don't get anything these next 5 months, this will be the first year since 1997 that we didn't get some sort of Scooby movie. Wouldn't it be sad if the best thing we got was the Mystery Incorporated fan series? I guess we still have that 30-minute episode 2 to look forward to, but they said it would be released at the end of July and we haven't heard anything.
Jayden
8/3/2022 11:53:31 am
The Mystery Incorporated series might be good but I will still call it a mess because Scooby isn't meant to be live action. I really miss Scooby films like Cyber Chase or Zombie Island. But as in animation I prefer Stage Fright and Camp Scare. We really need more films like those. 8/3/2022 05:37:04 pm
I personally enjoy the Mystery Incorporated series but I can definitely understand why you have the perspective you have. I wish the franchise would go more in the direction of the Zombie Island era films as well. I know not everybody enjoys them, but a lot of fans were a fan of that more mature/darker tone so I think it would be a smart direction to take the franchise in if they want to please the majority of fans.
Jayden
8/4/2022 05:18:18 am
I mean even the phantom virus didn't have a very scary design but was still a very terrific and threatening villain. But I love the 3 monsters in Camp Scare and the insane unexpected twist at the end
James Dixon
8/3/2022 12:17:15 pm
Completely unrelated but, I just noticed that "The San Franpsycho," a season 2 episode that aired in 2004, has a 2002 copyright!
Becker
8/3/2022 01:13:09 pm
That's good fun fact Monday material 8/3/2022 05:37:52 pm
I would love to post this as a fun fact! Would you be open to me using it for next Monday, James?
James Dixon
8/3/2022 06:11:29 pm
Why sure, WWV! That would be okay. I'm not sure I was thinking quite that when I posted it, but I think that's a peculiar interesting thing to see.
Lada$ha
8/3/2022 12:20:21 pm
Oh heck no! I’m seriously about snatch that new CEO’s dollar store wig! Like fo’ real! How can he ruin Scooby like this!? I was looking forward to Scoob 2, Krypto, and the Trick or Treat movie. Velma and Mystery Pups ain’t looking too interesting either but I’ll take what I can get doe. I just want a proper Scooby series like SDMI or WNSD. I almost broke my acrylic nails when I slammed my hands on my desk upon hearing this distressing news. Imma go out with my home girl Shanaynay to de stress. Later y’all! 8/3/2022 05:40:23 pm
Lol I would also love another WNSD or SDMI. It seems like the majority of fans enjoyed those series, so it would be smart for them to go in that direction. Hope you and Shanaynay had fun! haha
Drakosleuth
8/3/2022 01:49:19 pm
#SaveScoobHolidayHaunt 8/3/2022 05:38:49 pm
I don't think there's any saving it unfortunately, but it would really cool if the film was able to see the light of day somehow!
Jakob123
8/3/2022 05:38:23 pm
I am both shocked and disappointed at the same time, What the hell is this world coming to?
Jakob123
8/3/2022 05:40:12 pm
How could WB do such a thing to us fans? 8/3/2022 05:41:36 pm
It's unfortunate and it definitely has me worried for the future of the franchise. It sounds like it mainly came from WB's new CEO David Zaslav, but hopefully he leaves the other series, Velma and Mystery Pups, alone.
Becker
8/4/2022 08:54:02 am
As far as DC goes, I think Discovery and Zaslav are doing the right thing with bringing the DCEU back on track personally. There's many reasons why I believe they're definitely taking the hard but right decisions regarding DC, it would take too long to explain and this isn't a DC board in the first place. 8/4/2022 10:49:23 am
I'm hopeful all he'll touch is Holiday Haunt. Trick or Treat still coming out is a good sign. 8/13/2022 05:12:20 pm
Very sad that they have cancelled Scoob! Holiday Haunt. I hope they change their minds and end up releasing it. It's almost done! 8/13/2022 05:25:05 pm
It would be great if there could be a way for them to release it! It seems silly to not release the film when it's so close to being finished.
Tom Holste
8/20/2022 10:43:36 am
I know I'm extremely late to this. I heard the shocking news at the time, but didn't have a chance till now to come read the blog post or the comments. 8/21/2022 10:34:35 am
I think it absolutely has to do with tax writeoffs. The movie was nearly done by the time they cancelled it, so it doesn't make sense otherwise to pull the plug when all that money had already been spent. I don't think it means we won't see any more of Scooby either, I'm just guessing that it will probably mean less content (at least for a while). Leave a Reply. |
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