Can “John Wick” Director Chad Stahelski Save The “Birds of Prey” Movie?

The more I hear about the upcoming Birds of Prey movie the more I’m unable to understand why we aren’t getting Gotham City Sirens instead. Anyway, it turns out, the film is in dire need of reshoots (somewhat close to its February 7, 2020, release date), and John Wick director Chad Stahelski has joined to amp the action sequences.

I don’t know about what you think, but as far as my opinion goes (and I might be totally wrong), the current Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) movie is nothing more than an ego-stroking project for Margot Robbie who plays Harley Quinn. The Birds of Prey team consists of Huntress and Black Canary, but won’t have Batgirl as not to take away the spotlight from Robbie’s Quinn.

I think a similar rationale is behind why we didn’t get a Gotham City Sirens film in place of BoP; Robbie didn’t want to make her character compete with the likes of Catwoman and Poison Ivy. With Huntress and Black Canary being comparatively low-tiered characters in front of Selina Kyle, Pamela Isley, and Barbara Gordon, Robbie has nothing to worry about.

Furthermore, the current details about the plot (which will apparantly feature problematic queer representation) don’t welcome much support either. It all sounds like a mess. So, it will be interesting to see how this film does when it hits theaters next year.

As far as the reshoots are concerned, director Chad Stahelski (of John Wick fame) is joining in an uncredited role to oversee the second unit photography for BoP. His job includes additional shoots as well as designing new action sequences for the project.

Stahelski has done similar work for Captain America: Civil War, The Hunger Games, and The Expendables 2. His stunt firm 87eleven was already working on BoP since production.

Will Stahelski’s involvement help BoP? Only time will tell.

There’s some online chatter about how the optics of such a decision don’t come across as great. Does getting Stahelski to be involved at such a time mean Warner Bros. wasn’t confident with what director Cathy Yan presented the studio with?

Did Yan not meet the studio’s expectations and Stahelski had to be brought in to salvage the film, but he won’t be getting credit as not to take away from the narrative of having a woman-centric superhero film be directed by a woman?

There’s a whole lot of drama surrounding Birds of Prey, and I can’t wait to see if it’ll be a successful DC Comics-based movie or another dud for Warner Bros.

Feel free to share your thoughts with us.

(via The Hollywood Reporter)

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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