Scoob! Holiday Haunt Is Forging Ahead With Recording Its Score, For An Understandable Reason
Up until last week's tumultuous series of industry-shaking events spearheaded by Warner Bros. Discovery, the 2020 animated "Scoob!" movie was perhaps most well-known for driving some troubling corners of the internet into obsessing over a certain female cop character. (Warning: Don't click that link unless you're well and truly prepared to go down that rabbit hole.) But now, after the shocking development that saw both the nearly-completed "Batgirl" and the in-production "Scoob!" sequel shelved entirely, the lasting legacy of this would-be franchise is now more accurately defined by what audiences weren't able to see — namely, the actual movie itself.
But even after the heartbreaking decision to prevent viewers from ever appreciating the hard work that countless animators poured into the project, it seems that at least one aspect will continue to forge ahead and be brought to completion.
To state the obvious, there's absolutely nothing normal about pulling an expensive animated sequel (reported to have cost roughly $40 million) from release, so perhaps it stands to reason that we'd receive the equally as unusual news that the musicians are still intent on finishing recording the score of the film. That's the report from "Scoob! Holiday Haunt" producer Tony Cervone (director of the first "Scoob!" film), via Variety, which details the bizarre state of limbo that some members of the production find themselves in. The show must go on — or parts of it, at least — and those responsible for the film's score are making the most of it.
The show must go on
Ever think about what might happen to a film's score that's only partway through recording when those in charge suddenly scrap the entire project? Well, some deeply unfortunate musicians are discovering the answer to that very question in the oddest possible way. In an Instagram post shared over this past weekend by Cervone, the "Scoob!" sequel producer revealed the surprising news that the musicians already recruited to create the now-defunct movie's score have been hard at work, still laboring over the final recording for a film that will no longer come out. The reason? Well, as he puts it:
"So what do you do when the movie is canceled, but you've already paid for the stage and the musicians? You record the damn score!"
At the very least, it's good to know that the many unseen talent behind the production are still being compensated for their hard work ... even if audiences will never get to see the fruit of their labor. One might hope that Warner Bros. would find a way to officially release this score for viewers to enjoy, but the complicated legality of it all makes it difficult to guess whether that could actually happen or not. After all, a key facet of the decision to take a tax write-down on a movie like "Scoob!" prevents the studio from ever making any actual money from the production. In that light, it doesn't seem likely that this score will ever find itself available to stream on Spotify or Google Music at any point.
Still, as much as this might create comparisons to those band members on the Titanic, there's something admirable about finishing this job despite the awful circumstances. It's a necessary reminder that there are people behind every movie, not just numbers.