Cathy Yan is about to make the biggest film of her career. Fresh off the success of her indie film “Dead Pigs,” the filmmaker quickly jumped at the opportunity to direct the upcoming Warner Bros./DC film “Birds of Prey,” starring Margot Robbie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, and Rosie Perez. But Yan isn’t the obvious choice to direct the massive film, as her experience thus far has been limited to incredibly small budgets. But as she explained in a new discussion at the recent US-China Entertainment Summit (via Deadline), Yan got the gig utilizing some old-fashioned elbow grease.
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“I did my homework,” Yan said, as she explained landing “Birds of Prey.” “I wouldn’t say it was easy, but it was relatively painless and straightforward. I immediately loved the script and it felt like something I could really do, and it felt very much like my own voice.”
She added, “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 relatable. 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.”
For those not familiar with the project, “Birds of Prey” is the upcoming WB/DC film that sees the return of Robbie’s Harley Quinn (of “Suicide Squad” fame) as she teams up with Black Canary (Smollett-Bell), Huntress (Winstead), and Detective Renee Montoya (Perez) as they fight crime in Gotham City. Robbie has been at the forefront of the project, producing and developing the film as her “Suicide Squad” follow-up for her fan-favorite character. She has described “Birds of Prey” as a “girl-gang film.”
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Yan explained how she pitched “Birds of Prey,” considering she admitted that she has never done a pitch meeting like this before, saying, “It came out of me. 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).”
Also of note, the filmmaker confirmed that “Birds of Prey” will carry an R-rating, which seems to be all the rage in superhero films after “Deadpool 1 & 2” and “Logan” saw success with the adult rating. WB’s upcoming “Joker” film starring Joaquin Phoenix is also said to sport the R-rating, making it the first superhero film from the DC universe to have such a designation.
“Birds of Prey” will begin filming in early 2019 for a February 7, 2020 release.