NEW YORK Aug 4 — The directors of Batgirl said Wednesday they were "shocked” that the US$90 million (RM401 million) dollar superhero film had been axed by the studio and will now not be released in any format.

Warner Bros. Discovery announced they were shelving the movie adaptation of the DC Comics character, which was to star Leslie Grace in the title role, alongside Michael Keaton as Batman, preventing it from being seen in either theaters or on streaming platform HBO Max.

"We are saddened and shocked by the news. We still can’t believe it,” directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah wrote on Instagram.

"As directors, it is critical that our work be shown to audiences, and while the film was far from finished, we wish that fans all over the world would have had the opportunity to see and embrace the final film themselves.” The movie had completed principal photography and much of the post-production work — where special effects, sound and graphics are added — was also done.

Star Grace ("In the Heights”) had told interviewers how excited she was to have landed the roll, and how thrilled she was to be working with Keaton and other luminaries.

Her efforts were applauded by El Arbi and Fallah, who described themselves as "huge fans of Batman since we were little kids.” "It was a dream to work with such fantastic actors like Michael Keaton, JK Simmons, Brendan Fraser... and especially the great Leslie Grace, who portrayed Batgirl with so much passion, dedication and humanity,” the Bad Boys for Life directing duo added.

The move sent shockwaves through Hollywood, where industry veterans said it was unprecedented for a movie to be so close to completion — and with so much money already spent — and not be released.

Batgirl appears to have fallen victim to a change in corporate strategy after a merger between Warner Bros. and Discovery.

Warner Bros. had committed to making movies that could go straight to HBO Max, as part of an effort to boost subscribers in the increasingly crowded streaming sector.

The decision, which was driven partially by a need to bypass Covid-hit theaters in 2021, was not popular among creatives and appears to have been rolled back after the tie-up with Discovery.

Trade title Variety quoted industry insiders saying Batgirl had fallen between two stools — not big and glitzy enough for a theatrical release, with its expensive marketing requirements, but too big to make economic sense in the belt-tightening streaming landscape.

Variety said the US$90 million hole this would leave in the studio’s balance sheet would probably be dealt with via a tax write-down — a process where companies reduce their exposure to tax by subtracting losses from their profits. — AFP