They talk about it with a smile, but remain in shock. A few weeks after knowing the cancellation of his film Bat girlBelgian directorial duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, who will release the film next week rebeltold TF1 how they experienced this traumatic event.
“We always wanted to go down in cinema history, we didn’t know it was going to be like this,” laughs Adil El Arbi.
The duo found out about the news at the latter’s wedding: “They called us the same day, but it was already in the press. While I was on the phone, I got texts asking, ‘Is it true?'”
Bilall Fallah meanwhile was “in a graveyard with his grandparents” when he was shocked to discover the suppression of his film. “I was already in a high emotional zone. Then I picked up my phone and saw all the messages. I was like, ‘Is this a joke?'”
“It hurts, it’s shocking”
Of Bat girl, the duo could not keep anything. “We have nothing,” they say. They admit, however, to have “tried” to recover it. “We only have stuff that we shot on set,” says Bilall Fallah. What they filmed is now owned by the Warner Bros. studio.
“It hurts, it’s shocking,” summarizes the director.
In an interview with SKRIPT, Bilall Fallah completes: “Adil called me and told me to film everything with my laptop. I went to the server and everything was blocked.” “There was no way to access the film anymore,” adds Adil El Arbi.
They are not alone in this ordeal: “We are very happy with the support,” Adil El Arbi told TF1. “We keep our heads up because we get a lot of support on the internet, also from a lot of directors… [Edgar Wright, James Gunn, NDLR] It hurts, it will stay. We hope that one day the film will be released,” adds Bilall Fallah.
When Warner Bros. made the decision earlier this month to cancel the movie Bat girlthis one was far from over: “We had finished filming, but there was still a lot of post-production to do, including special effects. We still had to shoot some scenes, modify some things. There was still a lot of work to do.”
Source: BFM TV
