Coyote vs. Acme: Movie News & Updates

LOS ANGELES - A new trailer for Coyote vs. Acme, the hybrid live-action/animation courtroom comedy scheduled for an August 21 release, dropped Wednesday, offering a first look at how Wile E. Coyote finally trades his anvils and rocket skates for a legal brief.

The 103-minute film, directed by Dave Green, pits the perpetually frustrated Looney Tunes icon against the corporation that sold him all those defective contraptions. According to the official synopsis, after yet another Acme product fails catastrophically during his relentless pursuit of the Roadrunner, the Coyote decides the only logical step is to file a lawsuit. He enlists a down-on-his-luck billboard lawyer named Kevin Avery, played by Will Forte, to take on the might of Acme Corp.

The trailer opens with a montage of classic Acme failures-rockets fizzling, roller skates detaching, and heavy anvils landing on the wrong recipient-before cutting to Forte’s character in a cramped offices. “You want to sue Acme?” Avery asks, staring at the silent, besuited Coyote. “The company that makes everything from exploding birdseed to self-destructing parachutes?” The coyote’s reply, conveyed through physical gestures and a legal pad, is a firm nod.

The supporting cast assembled for the case provides the human grounding for the zany premise. Lana Condor plays Paige Avery, Kevin’s disillusioned daughter who becomes an unlikely ally in the courtroom battle. “My dad represents a guy who chases a bird for a living,” Condor’s character says in one scene. “But for the first time, he’s representing something real.” Tone Bell appears as Sal Maltese, a rival attorney who warns the Averys they are in over their heads.

John Cena stars as Buddy Crane, a slick Acme Corporation executive who dismisses the lawsuit as frivolous. One clip shows Cena’s character addressing a press conference: “Acme has always stood for quality. If Mr. Coyote can’t catch a bird, that’s a personal problem, not a design flaw.” The line is met with a deadpan reaction from Martha Kelly’s character, Dottie Jones, the no-nonsense judge presiding over the case. Luis Guzmán rounds out the courtroom as Judge Troppogrosso, whose patience is tested by the absurdity of the proceedings.

The film also features a heavy dose of classic Looney Tunes animation. Eric Bauza provides the voices for an entire menagerie of characters, including Foghorn Leghorn, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, and Bugs Bunny. In the trailer, a brief cameo shows Daffy offering legal advice from a jail cell: “I once sued Warner Bros. myself. Let’s just say I learned to read the fine print.” Bauza also voices Elmer Fudd, appearing as an expert witness on hunting equipment, and Bugs Bunny, who drops by the courthouse to deliver a sarcastic carrot-chewing commentary on the proceedings.

P.J. Byrne plays Bill Pellicanos, an investigator who helps the Averys dig through Acme’s product liability history, discovering that the company may knowingly have shipped malfunctioning merchandise for decades. “This isn’t just one bad rocket,” Byrne’s character explains. “This is a systemic pattern of failing to catch birds.” The mystery element of the film involves uncovering whether Acme’s faulty products are merely incompetence or a deliberate scheme to keep perpetual customers like Wile E. Coyote coming back for more.

Green, known for directing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows and Earth to Echo, has described the project as an underdog story. “Wile E. Coyote has been clobbered, flattened, and singed for decades,” Green said in a director’s statement included in the trailer’s production notes. “This movie asks what happens when he finally decides to fight back, not with an Acme catapult, but with the law. It’s funny, but it’s also a story about persistence and taking on impossible odds.”

The trailer’s final moments show the Coyote walking into the courtroom wearing a poorly fitted suit, carrying a briefcase stuffed with exploded dynamite, and standing next to Forte’s Avery. “We may not win,” Avery says to the jury. “But for the first time, someone is holding the biggest corporation in cartoon history accountable.” The screen cuts to black, a Road Runner “beep-beep” echoes off-screen, and the title card appears.

Industry observers note that Coyote vs. Acme has already generated substantial buzz due to its unique blend of live-action and traditional hand-drawn animation, a technique that Warner Bros. hasn’t attempted on this scale since Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The film’s August release slots it as a late-summer counter-programming play, positioning a family-friendly comedy against the season’s heavier blockbusters.

For fans who have watched Wile E. Coyote suffer through 85 years of Acme-brand failures, the trailer offers a cathartic promise: this time, the joke might finally be on the corporation. Whether the Coyote will ultimately win the case remains a mystery, but as the trailer’s tagline reads: “When you can’t beat ’em, sue ’em.”

Source: Hollywood Reporter