The other week brought news that DC are pushing ahead with a Birds of Prey movie, as director Cathy Yan has been contracted to helm the team-up film which will feature a bunch of Gotham’s female heroes and anti-heroes. Who exactly will be on the roster is unknown, but Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn is no doubt a lock, while we’ve also heard reports that Batgirl will be making her DCEU debut here as well.
That remains unconfirmed at the moment, however, but what we can tell you with absolute certainty is that the team-up movie will be based on a script penned by Christina Hodson (Bumblebee: The Movie), who just extended her tenure with Warner Bros. after agreeing to course-correct Joss Whedon’s Batgirl. Still no word on a possible release date for that one, but Robbie has now spilled some intriguing new details on Birds of Prey.
Speaking with Collider, the actress revealed that the idea she pitched for the pic was an “R-rated girl gang film,” explaining it as such:
“I pitched the idea of an R-rated girl gang film including Harley, because I was like, ‘Harley needs friends.’ Harley loves interacting with people, so don’t ever make her do a standalone film. She’s got to be with other people, it should be a girl gang. I wasn’t seeing enough girl gangs on screen, especially in the action space. So that was always a big part of it.”
Continuing on, Robbie stressed the importance of having a female director as well, saying:
“And then of course having a female director to tell that story. And giving a female director the chance to do big budget stuff. They always get ‘Here’s the tiny little film’… I was like, ‘I love action. I love action films. I’m a girl. What, are we meant to only like a specific thing’?” So it was a hugely important to find a female director for this, if possible. But at the end of the day — male, female — the best director gets the job and Cathy was the best director.
Meanwhile, the so hot right now actress also spoke with Moviefone and told them that she’s not involved in any of the other Harley spinoffs.
“The studio has been exploring other Harley Quinn spin-offs. But I was not a part of those versions, I was always focused on this one with Christina… I know that they were exploring ‘Gotham City Sirens’ with David Ayer, and I know they were exploring a Joker and Harley Quinn movie, and they were exploring doing I don’t know what else. I wasn’t a part of those. I was focusing on this. I kept presenting it to the studio until they felt it was at a point where they were ready to do it. And now we’re all in.”
If everything goes according to plan, Birds of Prey will head before the cameras either later this year or very early in 2019, and no doubt Warner Bros. – and the fans, too – will be hoping for another Wonder Woman-sized hit here. Whether they’ll get that or not remains to be seen, of course, but from what Robbie’s saying, it certainly sounds like they could be onto something very special. As always watch this space for more.