Cathy Yan Will Direct The HARLEY QUINN Movie

Admittedly, it's been somewhat difficult keeping track of the happenings over at Warner Bros.' DCU: you've got movies that are part of the established Snyder-verse (Aquaman, the next Wonder Woman), movies that aren't a part of that mythology (the forthcoming Joker movie from Todd Phillips), and a few projects whose ties to the greater DCU remain unclear (the long-gestating Gotham City Sirens movie, for instance). These movies get announced and immediately become a part of the blur that is WB's superhero output.

Today brings news about one such project, the forthcoming Harley Quinn spin-off movie, which will - as you surely know - star Margot Robbie, who'll be reprising her role from 2016's Suicide Squad. This one's been kicking around for some time, but today we've learned who'll be writing and directing the picture.

Says Variety:

"Cathy Yan has been tapped to direct a spinoff based on crazed supervillain Harley Quinn. The movie will be based on the Birds of Prey comic with Margot Robbie attached to star.

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.” 

That's...somewhat confusingly-worded, but what we think Variety's saying is: the Harley Quinn movie (to be based on DC's Birds of Prey comic series) will be directed by Cathy Yan, written by Christina Hodson (who also scripted the forthcoming Batgirl movie), and will - as promised - star Margot Robbie, who will begin work on the project later this year, just as soon as she wraps work on Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

This lineup immediately establishes the Harley Quinn movie as a lady-centric affair, and will make this the third project DCU movie to be directed by a woman, following the outstanding worked turned in by Patty Jenkins on Wonder Woman and Ava DuVernay hiring for The New Gods. That's all very encouraging, especially to those of us who could've maybe done with 75% less gratuitous Harley Quinn ass-shots in Suicide Squad. Perhaps, between Yan, Hodson and the newly-powerful Robbie (who was just nominated for an Oscar for her work in I, Tonya) we'll get something a little less...y'know, leering.

As for Yan: we don't know much about her! Her one feature film credit is something called Dead Pigs, which we know very little about (although Evan did see the film at Sundance). There's no telling what brought her to this project or what element of Dead Pigs made her seem like a good fit for the material, but we suppose a lot of that will become clear over time. For now, we're excited to see the direction WB's taking this one in, and look forward to hearing more.

What do you folks think? Into this news? Not so much? Do you remain confused about the number of WB superhero projects currently in development? Sound off in the comments below.