Whenever a DC and/or Marvel movie is greenlit, the first thing I always look for is for the director behind the project. That can make it or break it for me when it comes to these uber-capitalist entities, most of which are just silly franchise movies trying to make a quick buck. A talented filmmaker can raise the bar of quality, bring some artful resonance to the stakes at hand, case in point would be what Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight), James Mangold (Logan), Sam Raimi (Sam Raimi), and Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok) did with their respective franchise films.
Director Cathy Yan, the Asian-American indie director behind “Dead Pigs,” was tasked to helm the upcoming DC movie “Birds of Prey.” The film is an all-female superhero team-up starring Margot Robbie (reprising her role as Harley Quinn from “Suicide Squad”).
Will this be a critical darling ala “Wonder Woman” and “Shazam!” for the WB and DC or are we just going back to the same meshuggeneh nonsense that we saw in“Suicide Squad,” “Justice League“ “Batman V. Superman.” “Aquaman”? That is the almighty question and, truth be told, it rests in the hands of Yan and her screenwriter Christina Hodson, whose screenplays include “Shut In” (2016) and “Bumblebee” (2018).
The film follows Harley Quinn (Robbie), joining forces with Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), the Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez) to save Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco) from Gotham City crime lord Black Mask (Ewan McGregor).
“Birds of Prey” is R-Rated and scheduled to be released into theaters on February 7, 2020.
So this next film by The Daniels, Scheinert and Kwan, of “EEAAO” fame, is looking exactly like we expected it to be.