Warner Bros and DC Comics have had a very difficult time in their efforts to match Marvel’s cinematic successes. The Christopher Nolan Batman movies may have helped pave the way for superheroes on screen, but those feel like a long time ago now; The Dark Knight and Iron Man came out within months of each other in 2008, but Marvel’s franchise is unbroken since, with Robert Downey Jr. set for another turn in the tin suit next week.
DC, meanwhile, struggled after Nolan left. Justice League was a bomb last year, and the year before, Batman V. Superman and Suicide Squad were also failures. The lone exception: Wonder Woman, directed by Patti Jenkins, which was a breath of fresh air, critically and commercially successful while also being culturally important. Now WB and DC are apparently learning from their mistake, as they’ve revamped their schedule to move a Birds of Prey adaptation into production instead of the planned Suicide Squad 2.
That’s via Justin Kroll of Variety:
BREAKING: Cathy Yan tapped to direct BIRDS OF PREY, the next Harley Quinn pic which will shoot at the end of the year. WB pic this as the next pic after Christina Hodson blew execs away with her script
— Justin Kroll (@krolljvar) April 17, 2018
As for SUICIDE SQUAD 2, clearly moving out of 2018 shoot. The move to go with BOP not only had a lot to do with Hodson's script but also the idea of doing with BATGIRL what Marvel did with Black Panther in CIVIL WAR by introducing them into universe before giving them own film
— Justin Kroll (@krolljvar) April 17, 2018
But more importantly, the studio is tapping Cathy Yan to direct. That means an all-woman superhero team will be featured in a film with a female director and a female screenwriter. And even then it might not have happened if not for Margot Robbie insisting. Via Variety:
Yan, a former Wall St. Journal reporter who made her feature debut with Sundance entry “Dead Pigs,” will be the second female filmmaker to direct a DC film, following Patty Jenkins with “Wonder Woman.” She will also be the first Asian woman to helm a movie from the DC Comics universe. DC previously tapped Ava DuVernay to direct “New Gods,” which is still in development.
Christina Hodson, who was recently tapped to pen the “Batgirl” pic, wrote the script. The studio had been weighing several Quinn options, including a “Suicide Squad” sequel with Gavin O’Connor, before picking “Birds of Prey.” Sources add that script is still being worked on, but Yan is likely to take over directing reins once the script is done.
This means that finally, with Yan, DuVernay, and Jenkins (working on the Wonder Woman sequel), DC might be learning a bit from their successes instead of trying to force failed approaches and directors and tone down the throats of audiences who have so far rejected it. Justice League had Gal Gadot reprising Wonder Woman just six months after the initial movie was a smash hit, and it also had Batman and Superman, and it made half of what Wonder Woman made.
If the new strategy is to give the movies to directors and writers most capable of telling the character’s stories, and then getting out of the way, the DC film universe might have a chance to get better.
