Deepfake David Zaslav Explains Why He Canned ‘Coyote Vs. Acme’

Even though Warner Bros. Discovery seems to have backtracked on its decision to shelve Coyote vs. Acme, Hollywood (and Congress) remain unconvinced that the company won’t try this tactic again.

WBD CEO David Zaslav, who is the architect of the company’s produce-it-but-don’t-release-it mantra, has yet to offer a rational explanation for why this is a good long-term strategy for a Hollywood studio, but the approach finally makes some semblance of sense in this animated parody video, in which a faux Zaslav explains that the studio is adopting a “new process we call shelving.”

Deepfake Zaslav answers all his critics in the video, particularly those who might be wondering, “Hey Zas! If you love movies so much, how come you’re not releasing them?” To those people, he responds, “Well, if you loved your pet parakeet, would you release him? Heck, no! You’d keep him locked up on a shelf.”

But Zas promises that he won’t shelf every movie. “In fact, qualitative data shows us that watching movie content is one of the core ways buyers choose to interact with IP. That’s why we’ll continue to keep you guessing which movies will be released, which will be shelved, and which will be released for years, then suddenly and inexplicably disappear from our streaming platforms.”

The cathartic video, which is packed with botched references to Warner Bros. films, was create by Jacob Reed, a former segment director on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. We recently spoke with Reed about his Our Frasier Remake project, in which he brought together over 100 animators to recreate an animated version of the NBC sitcom.

This also isn’t Reed’s first commentary on what’s been happening throughout Hollywood this year. Back in May, during the WGA writer’s strike, he organized a plane to fly around Hollywood and Burbank with a banner that read, ‘Pay the writers, you AI-holes!”:

Spotted in Toluca Lake: Pay the Writers you AI-Holes! #WGAstrong #writersstrike pic.twitter.com/TwGGH8raQj

— Brittani Nichols (@BisHilarious) May 15, 2023