DC Films’ Birds of Prey movie is expected to push boundaries in more ways than one.
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During a recent appearance at the U.S.-China Entertainment Summit, Birds of Prey director Cathy Yan spoke about the upcoming all-female team-up movie. According to Deadline, Yan confirmed during the presentation that Birds would be rated R, something that has been reported in one way or another for several months now.
“I pitched the idea of an R-rated girl gang film including Harley, because I was like, ‘Harley needs friends.’” Margot Robbie, who will reprise her role as Harley Quinn, said of the film last year. “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.”
The film will see Harley teaming up with Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), and Cassandra Cain, as they all attempt to take down DC Comics villain Black Mask. According to Yan, the script from Bumblebee’s Christina Hodson was a highlight of preparing to potentially do the project.
“I wouldn’t say it was easy, but it was relatively painless and straightforward.” Yan explained. “I immediately loved the script and it felt like something I could really do, and it felt very much like my own voice.”
“I could not put the script down, it had so much dark humor to it which a lot of my work does, and there are themes of female empowerment which are so strong and relateable.” Yan continued. “So I went in with, not with confidence, but at least a sense that I belonged in the room, that somehow magically in terms of timing and luck that this opportunity was open to me and I was definitely going to make the best of it.”
“It came out of me,” said Yan about her pitch meeting to Warner Bros., “I have never done any of these things and I asked my agents for examples to get a better sense: I put together a pitch deck and also assembled a sizzle reel. But I would say it wasn’t like a lot of other sizzle reels which reference other films that remotely feel like your film. I find those to be rather pointless. But I created my own version that thematically and tonally conveyed what you would feel (in my movie).”
Are you excited to see Birds of Prey be rated R? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
Upcoming DC films include Aquaman on December 21st, Shazam on April 5, 2019, Joker on October 10, 2019, Birds of Prey on February 7, 2020, and Wonder Woman 1984 on June 5, 2020.
