‘Birds of Prey’ to Reportedly Start Production in 2019 With All-Female Crew

Amid all of the rumors of separate DC Films projects involving Harley Quinn, a frontrunner has since appeared and could begin filming soon.

The Birds of Prey movie could begin filming in 2019, according to a report from Heroic Hollywood, and the production is also looking to hire an all-female crew.

Development on Birds of Prey has been moving swiftly, and the project seems to be at the top of star Margot Robbie‘s wishlist for the direction of Harley Quinn on the big screen, as she told Collider last week.

“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,” Robbie said. “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.”

The movie will unite Harley with Bat-family character Batgirl, whose own movie hit a snag after Joss Whedon abandoned the project. The other characters in the movie have yet to be decided, though stalwarts from the Birds of Prey comics including Huntress and Black Canary seem to be on the table.

Cathy Yan was recently hired to make the film, and Robbie spoke about the director’s importance to the vision and message of Birds of Prey.

“And then, of course, having a female director to tell that story. And giving a female director the chance to do big budget stuff,” Robbie said. “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.”

The other Harley-related projects, including the Joker-featuring “Mad Love” movie and David Ayer’s Gotham City Sirens, all seem to be on the back burner now, and plans for a Suicide Squad sequel seem to have been delayed.

There’s no word yet on when Birds of Prey could hit theaters, but with a 2019 production start date, we could be watching it in 2020.

Are you excited for to see this team-up project from DC Films? Let us know in the comments!