‘Suicide Squad’: David Ayer Banking On Harley Quinn To Carry Film
Suicide Squad is still two months from dropping in theaters, but it’s obvious who director David Ayer is banking on to carry his adaption of the popular DC comic book series. And it’s not the two Oscar-caliber actors in his cast, either.
As reported by Collider, David Ayer debuted a brand new movie poster for the highly-anticipated film starring Oscar-winning actor Jared Leto as the Joker, and Academy Award-nominated actor and box office champion Will Smith as Deadshot. But front and center between the two high profile stars sits Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, one of the most popular DC comics characters ever making her big screen debut in the film.
Skwad Up people! @wbpictures @SuicideSquadWB #skwad pic.twitter.com/xxvFat20x0
— David Ayer (@DavidAyerMovies) June 18, 2016
“Blending cartoonish animation with images of the main cast in the image of a nuclear explosion and casting it all on top of that ever-present neon purple and green background, it all just screams chaos. But when you’re talking about a team of deadly and insane villains turned heroes-for-hire, chaos is probably just the ticket.”
And chaos has been following this film ever since another DC film made its debut in 2016, namely the highly dubious Batman V Superman. After the film dropped to mixed reviews at best, all eyes immediately turned to Suicide Squad to see if the film could win over audiences where Zack Snyder’s melodramatic two-hour-plus bomb did not.
Immediately, rumors of re-shoots plagued the production, as reported by Entertainment Weekly. The thought was that because Batman V Superman was criticized for being too dark, and Fox Studios’ Deadpool won over fans with its humor, Suicide Squad was being tweaked to distance itself from the dark and lean more toward the funny. Ayer, of course, found that laughable.
#SuicideSquad “reshoots for humor” is silly. When a studio loves your movie and asks what else you want, go for it! #ThanksWB #moreaction
— David Ayer (@DavidAyerMovies) April 11, 2016
Jai Courtney, who portrays Captain Boomerang in the upcoming anti-hero team-up, also came to the director’s defense.
“I think there’s plenty of [humor] in it,” Screenrant reported. “I wouldn’t say we’re going back to make it funnier, there’s some additional action stuff that we’ve been doing, which is pretty dope. Really we’re just kind of adding in that sense.”
Whether we’ll ever know the truth remains to be seen. For now, all eyes turn to Robbie’s portrayal of Harley Quinn as the glue holding the film together. In fact, Warner Bros. is so keen on Margot’s portrayal in Suicide Squad that a spin-off film has already been announced, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter last month.
“Margot Robbie, who stars as the villainess in Suicide Squad, is attached to reprise the character and would also produce the untitled spinoff.”
According to the article, the film is said to focus on several female heroes and villains in the DC Universe though nothing concrete has been determined outside of Robbie’s involvement in the picture which was the impetus for the project to begin with.
“Sources say that Robbie was the impetus for the project, adding that when she got the part for the movie, she dove deep into the comics to learn as much as possible about the character. In the process, she fell for DC’s female characters. She brought on the writer to help develop the project and brought it to Warners, which snapped it up.”
Meanwhile, Ayer gave some insight on another aspect to Harley Quinn’s aesthetic appearance – her tattoos – in a new interview with Yahoo! Movies.
“The tattoos tell a very specific story, and eventually, people will decipher them and understand what’s going on, but obviously they’re contentious, anytime you do something new it’s contentious. There’s very specific stories and easter eggs in those tattoos.”
Suicide Squad hits theaters August 5, 2016.
[Image via Warner Bros.]
