Mogul David Zaslav and his Warner Bros. Discovery have become notorious over the past several years for shelving completed movies including Batgirl and Coyote vs. Acme to avoid paying royalties and taxes.
The cost-cutting strategy has been mimicked by Disney, which removed a $53 million youth-centric sci-fi/fantasy movie Crater from Disney Plus just 48 days after its premiere, among other seemingly anti-creative decisions. Paramount Plus, meanwhile, weaned its movie catalog by 64%, according to one estimate.
So when a film blogger reported (exclusively!) earlier this week that Netflix had cancelled completed Halle Berry film The Mothership, video business watchers wondered if the leading and currently most prosperous subscription streaming service had caught the austerity bug, too.
Turns out circumstances rather than corporate austerity strategy are more likely to blame for The Mothership's demise.
The film stars Berry as a single mom who discovers, along with her two kids, a flying saucer buried in her rural farm. Postproduction went on longer than anticipated. A significant number of reshoots were required. And the child actors simply grew up.
Netflix, which parted ways with film chief Scott Stuber earlier this week and wants to spend less money on its films, not more, apparently made a business decision, and cut bait on the film.
