’Batgirl’ Directors Reveal Shock of Film’s Cancellation, Attempted to Save Project

Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah reflect on the cancellation of their film "Batgirl." In a video posted on El Arbi’s Instagram account, we learn that Fallah was in Tetouan "visiting the tomb" of his grandparents when he saw "a lot of messages" on his phone as he was leaving the cemetery. "I got a call and they told me: Batgirl is done," Fallah said. Arbi, for his part, was in Tangier. "I was in Tangier, in my hotel, on my honeymoon with my wife. And all of a sudden, I got a phone call. At the same time, I was receiving all these messages. And they said they were going to kill the movie," Arbi added.

Once the "shock" had passed, Arbi recounts having immediately called the film’s editor, Martin Walsh, and begged him to "back it up." [...] copy the movie!" Then he called Fallah and asked him to copy the movie. "I went to the server and everything was blocked," Fallah said. El Arbi acknowledges, however, that this was "not the best thing to do" and apologized for it. He also explained that the attempted piracy was the result of "panic" and an "emotional reaction" to the news of the film’s cancellation. "It’s not good to do piracy," Arbi said. "Seeing that the movie was gone and that we didn’t have access to the images or that we couldn’t see them again ourselves, that was pretty hard."

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In early August, the Warner studio canceled the already filmed and edited "Batgirl" film, due in particular to the strategy of former WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar, who gave priority to streaming and HBO Max. This cancellation had shocked the industry in general and the Belgian-Moroccan directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah in particular.