MOORESVILLE — Back in time when TV screens were a bit smaller, on any given morning, Wile E. Coyote was hard at work trying to catch his arch nemesis.
Mr. Coyote didn’t believe in taking the easy way for anything, and instead of using his natural, predatory instincts, preferred to earn things by the sweat of his brow. His prey may be quick, but what Mr. Coyote lacked in speed, he made up for in ingenuity.
On any given morning, millions of people — probably in pajamas, criss-crossed, too close to the screen — watched him try and try again.
To catch a Road Runner, sometimes Mr. Coyote used rockets, anvils, dynamite, anything and everything the Acme Corp. had to offer. Mr. Coyote shopped Acme because they were pretty much the only game in town, holding a monopoly on Road Runner murder devices.
But try as he might, Mr. Coyote could never catch that Road Runner. Something always seemed to go awry.
Take, for example, the case of the earthquake pills. Acme’s earthquake pills asked customers why they should wait for nature, when by taking one of their special pills, customers could make their own earthquakes. “Loads of fun!” reads the bottle.
So, that crafty Mr. Coyote poured his bottle of pills in the middle of that desert highway, and cleverly erected a nearby sign advertising “Free Bird Feed.” Road Runner would eat the “bird feed” and his insides would experience earthquakes, slowing him down so much that Mr. Coyote could finally win.
According to plan, Road Runner stopped and nibbled at the bird feed. But then he very quickly took off again, as if nothing had happened.
What! Why wasn’t that wretched bird slowed by earthquakes wrecking his insides? The pills must be defective, Mr. Coyote thought, as he emptied the rest of the bottle into his mouth, and tossed it away.
Of course, by the time it was too late, Mr. Coyote’s eyes noticed teeny tiny letters at the bottom of the bottle, which read: CAUTION: Not effective on Road Runners. On cue, Mr. Coyote’s insides began to rumble.
Children at home learned a very valuable lesson: Always read the fine print. It’s a lesson they would go on to frequently ignore as adults, just as Mr. Coyote did the next day, when he attempted to catch Road Runner again with another Acme product.
Would he ever learn? Would we?
Invisible characters
Of course, real people were responsible for ensuring Mr. Coyote never learned his lesson.
Some of these people are very rich and famous, and they work for large companies, not unlike Acme.
Others are journeymen, following their artistic impulses wherever they lead.
Carsten Kurpanek and Courtney Hawkins are two of the latter. The L.A. pair don’t have household names, but you’ve likely seen them around.
German-born Kurpanek is a film editor, and his work includes popular movies like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and World War Z. Hawkins is a Hollywood Hoosier, appearing in small roles just about everywhere, from movies like Logan to TV’s NCIS and commercials for Audi.
They sit now in Mooresville, in the home of Hawkin’s mother, Lynee Walters, with their two children, 9-year-old Cora and 2-year-old Arlo, weeks before the release of Kurpanek’s sort-of-latest project, Coyote vs. Acme.
The movie follows our favorite Mr. Coyote, as he seeks justice against the Acme Corp. for years of abuse at the hands of their defective products. It stars Will Forte, Lana Condor and John Cena, and is receiving glowing critical reviews.
Kurpanek began work on the film in 2021, a year before the camera started rolling. Unlike the other movies Kurpanek had worked on, Coyote is a hybrid live action-animated feature, and much had to be done on the invisible characters before any of the visible ones got to work.
The upcoming movie has all the fan-favorites: Bugs Bunny is here, as well as Tweety, and of course, Mr. Coyote.
Kurpanek’s role in Coyote is crucial. A film editor facilitates the vision of the director — each production shoots many takes, and the editor strings them together in a cohesive way.
Production on the movie wrapped in July 2023, and it was set to come out not long after. Kurpanek so enjoyed his time working on the movie that he even got a Wile E. Coyote tattoo just above his wrist.
“We thought the movie would come out,” Kurpanek said, and then laughed.
He laughed because in November 2023, Warner Bros. Entertainment announced that Coyote had been cancelled because Warner Bros. Discovery wanted to claim a tax loss of about $30 million. It was doubtful the movie would ever be seen.
“It felt like being broken up with,” Kurpanek told The Correspondent. “When you do artistic work, the finished product includes pieces of yourself, some of your identity. It’s hard not to take it personally.”
Years of work, apparently all gone to waste. But what could any invisible characters do against the power of Warner Bros.?
Penguin in a play
Kurpanek’s love for movies came at first sight; his love for editing was discovered much later.
In Germany, he watched movies “obsessively,” eventually going on to pursue a film studies degree in college. His knack for editing came to him in college, and he honed his skills in an exchange program at Ball State University.
“Editing became something I responded to,” Kurpanek said. “I really like the process. I’m not a huge fan of being on set.”
“I love being on set,” says Hawkins in response.
It was at Ball State where he met Hawkins after the two were assigned to work together on a short film. He edited the project, she starred in it.
Hawkins has had “stars in her eyes” since she was young, and she dreamed of acting ever since she landed the role of penguin in a second-grade play. Hawkins was a bright student, eventually becoming the salutatorian of her high school class.
With her grades, she had a lot of options, as her mother never tired of pointing out to her.
“Lawyers have to act,” Walters would say. “You’re smart — doctors are smart!”
“But she never changed,” Walters, who owns Blissglass in Mooresville, says now. “She’s exactly where she wants to be. Most people don’t get a chance to do what she’s done.”
It was at Ball State where Kurpanek and Hawkins fell in love, and after graduating, the two set off for Los Angeles to try and make it. When they arrived, Kurpanek took an unpaid internship while he waited for his green card, and Hawkins worked in restaurants.
“It was a total trustfall,” Hawkins said. “I was waiting tables. If you’re an actor, you’re a waiter.”
The situation was a bit precarious, but eventually things were looking up. Kurpanek was making connections in the industry and moving up the editing ladder, and Hawkins began landing roles in commercials, eventually being cast as a barista in the pilot of a TV show called Bent.
“We’re always just trying to stay busy,” Hawkins said. “There are heavy and lean years. It’s not the most secure work, but it’s part of the business. Ultimately, it’s not just a job though. It’s an identity. Having a creative outlet is intoxicating.”
Chasing dreams
In the present day, Kurpanek has blockbusters on his resume, and Hawkins spent the summer filming two movies and appearing in an episode of Tracker. They’ve accomplished all this while raising their two children, the younger of which is enjoying throwing his cereal bottle on the floor of Grandma’s house in Mooresville.
“That’s enough of that,” Hawkins says after the third toss, the tone of her voice switching from interviewee to mother.
Cora is in the living room too, and she’s humoring young Arlo and occasionally interjecting with her own thoughts on her parents’ answers.
Like her mother, Cora is an actor, having appeared in multiple commercials since she was a baby when she was filmed for McDonald’s. The majority of the money Cora makes is set aside for her future, with part of it serving as an allowance.
Cora is not pushed to act by her parents, but rather inherited the same gene that first activated in her mother all those years ago when she donned a penguin costume with her classmates. The precocious Cora is currently working on landing her first TV show.
Working in Hollywood, constantly trying to “make it,” can be challenging when you also have to be a parent. Work is steady until it’s not, and there’s a great deal of traveling involved — the family spent 14 months in London while Kurpanek was working on Coyote.
Cora says it’s sometimes difficult to have parents who work in the movie industry, as Hollywood demands often require the parents to be apart from one another for extended periods of time.
“This life can be hard sometimes, but it’s also wonderful,” Hawkins says. “I want (the kids) to see me chasing my dreams, so they won’t be afraid to chase their own.”
Vs. Acme
As anyone who’s experienced a break up knows, feelings don’t go away overnight. That’s why it’s called a “break” — it hurts.
Warner Bros. may have broken up with Kurpanek and all the other invisible characters involved in the production of Coyote, but the cast and crew weren’t going to take it lying down. Actor Will Forte frequently mentioned the movie in his interviews, even when he was promoting other work he was doing.
There was also a good deal of fan outcry, as the film’s humorous premise sparked a lot of interest. Additionally, the motives behind the film’s cancellation were the subject of outrage, as a large corporation was perceived to have trampled the dreams of its employees for the sake of a tax write-off.
After a lot of behind the scenes work, Ketchup Entertainment acquired the film rights from Warner Bros. for $50 million in 2025. Trailers for the film began appearing this past April, the first of which came out on Tax Day.
Marketing for Coyote continued to lean into the Warner Bros. controversy, with ads declaring it “The Movie Acme Doesn’t Want You To See.”
“We really identified with Wile E. Coyote, who is fighting a big corporation to get justice in the movie,” Kurpanek said. “We fought quite a bit for this film to see the light of day.”
Whether Acme likes it or not, the movie will be at Torchlight Cinema in Mooresville, and theaters everywhere else, on Aug. 28.
Despite the best efforts of Warner Bros., Mr. Coyote will have his day in court, and Kurpanek’s dream of seeing his work on the big screen will come true.
