Adelaide
Oct 30 - Nov 1, 2026
Adelaide Showground
It was a Tuesday night in late 2023 when Will Forte got a call that he’d be seeing a screening of his then latest film, Looney Tunes live action/animation hybrid Coyote vs. Acme, in a week.
The following day, his agent and manager called. The film was to be “destroyed” as a tax write-off; a call made amidst cost-saving measures at Warner Bros. They’d still be able to watch the film, which also stars John Cena and Lana Condor alongside the Looney Tunes, only now it would be a “funeral screening”.
“Before that funeral screening, I just thought, ‘Oh, it’s got to suck. Why would they make that decision otherwise?’ And so, when I went in, I just couldn’t believe that they had done that because it was so fantastic. You’re confused, you’re angry, you’re frustrated.”
Forte’s sitting at home when he speaks with Supanova, his Australian Shepherd Mudbutt casually strolling around his office. “He actually reminds me of Wile E. Coyote,” he jokes.
The film follows Wile E. Coyote, who, fed up with Acme’s faulty products harming him every time he plots against Road Runner, decides to hire a billboard lawyer from Albuquerque named Steven (played by Forte) to take on the multinational corporation.
In a case of life imitating art, the film’s story mirrors its eventual journey to release in many ways, as fans weren’t going to let Coyote vs. Acme be thrown away without making some serious noise.
“[Warner Bros.] had caught so much flack that they were saying that they were going to open it up to buyers,” Forte shares. “But then we had heard that there were some very legitimate bids put out there by companies and they weren’t really negotiating, so it just seemed like maybe it was performative just to get people off their backs.
“So, for a while you’re hopeful. You’re like, ‘Oh, somebody’s going to get this because it’s a special movie. It’s great.’ And then as it went on and it seemed like, ‘Oh, this is not happening.’ It was tough not to give up hope. I did give up hope. I was so filled with anger for a while that it just was not doing me any good to be living with that all the time.
“I just tried to move on. I have young kids, so it was easy to keep busy enough to get a little distance from it. So, when we finally found out that Ketchup Entertainment was allowed to buy it, it came out of nowhere. And those lows that we had experienced made that high, impossibly high. It was the best feeling ever and came out of nowhere.
“Maybe this is the way it was supposed to be. My mum always says everything happens for a reason, and this seems like it might be one of those cases.”
Forte’s a legend within comedy and beyond, having launched into fame via Saturday Night Live before becoming a fan favourite via MacGruber, The Last Man on Earth and more. But Coyote vs. Acme is special to him for a different reason.
“I don’t know that I’ll ever want my kids to watch MacGruber, even if they’re 50 years old,” he laughs. “When it looked like this movie was not going to ever come out and I got to go see it, that was the saddest thing for me is finally there’s this thing that I would be so excited, so proud to share with my kids.
“When it turned back around and the movie ended up coming out, I was so excited and yeah, it’s been a really special thing to get to share with them.”
Forte confirms that his five-year-old daughter and her school friends “loved it”.
“The story itself, it’s like a classic courtroom drama, and I love all movies like that. The interesting thing to me while I was watching it, or while I was reading it rather, was… is this going to be not adult enough for adults and not kid enough for kids? Is this for nobody? Or are we going to make a version of this that’s for everybody?
“And then once we were shooting it, I realised, ‘Oh, this is the really good version of this that I think is going to appeal to everybody.’ And then when I saw it for the first time all put together, yeah, it was that.
“But certainly, you’d go, ‘Oh, courtroom drama and you want a bunch of kids to go see it…’ But it really does work. We’re getting really high marks from parents and kids.”
Given the film centres on Wile E. Coyote, a character that doesn’t talk, it was interesting to see filmmakers not only being him life in a feature film, but showcase a different side of him.
“It’s really interesting because I don’t think they ever compromise his character throughout,” Forte says. “He still wants to eat this bird the entire time. He wants to eat that Road Runner, but they just did such a great job of showing the other sides of it.
“And you do feel compassion for this animated coyote that doesn’t speak and only holds up signs. It was just this great job of writing, and I was surprised that there’s some stuff that gets pretty emotional at the end that feels very well-earned. It kind of sneaks up on you. I love it. It’s hard to walk out of this experience and not see Wile E. Coyote in a new light.
“I grew up with Looney Tunes, and I would just watch them after school every day and every Saturday morning. I was born in 1970, so it was just on all the time in my childhood. People say, ‘Oh, were you a Road Runner guy or a Wile E. Coyote guy?’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t remember.’
“But now looking back, it’s hard for me to think that I wouldn’t have loved both. There’s just something about them – you don’t have one without the other.”
‘Coyote vs. Acme’ is in cinemas Sept 17
