Academy Award nominee Rosie Perez has been cast as Renee Montoya and will join Harley Quinn’s girl gang in the Margot Robbie film “Birds of Prey,” TheWrap has exclusively learned.
Montoya is a detective working for the Gotham City Police Department. Montoya is openly gay, and during The New 52 comics she took on a costumed identity, becoming the Question. The female superhero team-up film will be released on Feb. 7, 2020. Perez joins Jurnee Smollett-Bell and Mary Elizabeth Winstead who have been cast as Black Canary and Huntress.
Robbie will reprise her “Suicide Squad” character, Harley Quinn as well as produce alongside Kroll & Co Entertainment’s Sue Kroll and Bryan Unkeless. The film follows the adventures of a revolving group of female heroes and villains and is based on the DC Comics characters and concepts created by Jordan B. Gorfinkel and Chuck Dixon.
In addition, TheWrap has exclusively learned that the villain in “Birds of Prey” will be Black Mask, one of Batman’s foes who has never before appeared on the big screen.
Cathy Yan is set to direct. Yan is best known for writing and directing her feature debut “Dead Pigs,” which took home the World Cinema Dramatic Award For Ensemble Acting at Sundance earlier this year.
Yan would be the third female filmmaker to join the DC Universe with this film, which is still known as the Untitled Girl Gang Movie at Warner Bros. She will also be the first Asian woman to direct a DC film.
Yan was previously a reporter for the Wall Street Journal in New York, Hong Kong and Beijing and was one of the youngest writers in the paper’s history to pen multiple front-page stories. She is represented by CAA.
As TheWrap first reported, Christina Hodson wrote the “Birds of Prey” spinoff for Warner Bros. and DC Films. Hodson is also writing “Batgirl” for DC.
Perez has had a distinguished career ever since she broke out as Tina in Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing.” Perez went on to play supporting roles in Ron Shelton’s “White Men Can’t Jump,” and Carla Rodrigo in Peter Weir’s “Fearless,” for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Perez recent credits include NBC’s “Rise” and she also voiced Dulce in Disney Television’s “Elena of Avalor.”
Perez will next be seen alongside Anne Hathaway in “The Last Thing He Wanted,” a political thriller directed and co-written by Dee Rees set to debut on Netflix in 2019. She’s repped by Innovative Artists, Silver Lining Entertainment, and Leslie Sloane at Vision PR.
Every DC Comics Movie Ranked, Including 'The Suicide Squad'
Films based on DC properties go back nearly a century to those ancient Batman and Superman serials. That's a lot of history -- how does James Gunn's violent and hilarious "The Suicide Squad" stack up against everything that's come before?
39. "Jonah Hex" (2010)
Despite the efforts of Josh Brolin and Michael Fassbender, this is one of the worst comic book movies of the modern era.
38. "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" (1987)
Christopher Reeve is by far the best Superman. But "Superman IV" is a bomb in every sense -- partly because of its heavy-handedness about bombs. Nuclear bombs. The film finds Superman trying to eliminate the world's nuclear threat, but his best intentions run afoul of a silly, badly dated villain named Nuclear Man.
37. "Supergirl" (1984)
We had a female-superhero movie in 1984, and it was pure cheese. But hey, at least they tried. The best thing I can say about it is there are worse things in life than this movie.
Best known as "the one Shaq was in back when he tried acting," "Steel" is pretty bad. But the fun kind of bad.
34. "Justice League" (2017)
The Joss Whedon cut of "Justice League" is a disaster on so many levels before we even talk about Superman's weird CGI mouth.
33. "Man of Steel" (2013)
Could have been worse, I guess. But it's still morally gross and has a plot that doesn't make sense. That it's very pretty to look at doesn't override those things nearly enough to make it watchable.
32. "Joker" (2019)
This is not a good characterization of the Joker as a human being, and aside from that it's just a soulless, meaningless experience.
31. "Catwoman" (2004)
Thoroughly horrible, but somehow amusing even so. Sad that it's seemingly been swept into the litter box of history.
30. "Batman & Robin" (1997)
Rightly hated, but it's tremendously entertaining here and there. Uma Thurman and Arnold Schwarzeneggar are going so far over the top I can't help but admire them.
29. "Superman III" (1983)
Featured a brilliant corporate rip-off -- one later referenced in "Office Space" -- but the attempt to funny things up with the addition of Richard Pryor didn't gel. There was also a weird bit about a weather satellite creating bad weather, which isn't what weather satellites do. Seeing Clark Kent fight Superman was pretty cool, though.
28. "Green Lantern" (2011)
Overreliance on cartoony visual effects during a period when big blockbusters were moving away from that aesthetic meant this was a movie nobody liked. Not that it was especially horrible. It just looked like a dumb cartoon and is hard to watch.
27. "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012)
Probably wasn't intended to be a grim and gritty Shumacher Batmovie, but that is indeed what it is. This is Nolan going full Hollywood, smashing plot points into place by sheer force of will rather than because they make sense. An extremely theatrical Tom Hardy as Bane is amusing front to back, and a nuke with a countdown clock on it will never get old.
26. "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" (2016)
A total mess that hates Superman and turns Batman into a total maniac. None of those things are good. Ben Affleck can't save the thing, but he's excellent nonetheless and gives it a huge bump it probably doesn't deserve.
25. "Watchmen" (2009)
I have no particular affection for the revered "Watchmen" comic the way a lot of other nerds do, so my distaste for this adaptation isn't personal. It just doesn't add up to nearly as much as it thinks it does.
24. "V for Vendetta" (2006)
Felt nothing watching this. I tried, OK. It's impeccably made, though, and very watchable.
Giving this its own slot because it fundamentally changes the narrative of the movie and the character of Superman in the DC Extended Universe. This version is still not great (especially at three freaking hours), but it's a monumental improvement over the theatrical version.
21. "Red 2" (2013)
Did you even know these were comic book movies? Whatever, it's a great cast in a serviceable action movie and everybody's having a good time. Hard to remember, but fun.
20. "Red" (2010)
Better than its sequel, but they're basically the same.
19. "Batman" (1989)
Fondly remembered mostly because it was the first Batmovie in a couple decades. It isn't actually very good, though. The reveal that a younger version of the Joker killed Bruce Wayne's parents is as hamfistedly dumb as it gets in a "Batman" movie.
18. "Superman Returns" (2006)
Actually a pretty decent attempt by Bryan Singer to do a Christopher Reeve "Superman" movie in the present day, but Brandon Routh couldn't pull off the charisma it takes to be the Man of Steel. It was his first movie, so that's not surprising. But it's a shame, because Routh has gotten much better in the years since.
17. "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm" (1993)
Remember that time they released a "Batman" cartoon theatrically? It gets lost amongst all the live-action ones, but "Mask of the Phantasm" is better than most of them.
16. "Superman II" (1980)
Made kids everywhere cry as they watched Superman give up his powers for a normal life with Lois Lane (Margot Kidder). There are different edits of this movie, and we frankly can't keep them straight. But the sight of a powerless Clark getting beat up in a diner made Superman as sympathetic as he's ever been.
15. "Shazam" (2019)
It’s just so much fun! It’s a blast to watch, and is just a really nice celebration of the good parts of humanity. “Shazam” is a movie that simply feels good to watch.
14. "Wonder Woman" (2017)
Has the standard origin movie problem of "too much story, not enough time." And the standard DC Extended Universe problem of "We gotta have a nonsensical CGI battle at the end." But despite those caveats it's an enormous delight, and a big step forward for the DCEU.
13. "Birds of Prey" (2020)
This film is sensory overload, but (mostly) in all the right ways. And it's got the best action we've ever seen in any DC or Marvel movie. This would be a top 5 DC flick easily if the storytelling wasn't such a huge mess.
12. "Wonder Woman 1984" (2020)
Patty Jenkins' has the same sort of qualities that made "Superman: The Movie" so appealing. It's earnest, sincere and serious, but not silly or gritty or full of irony.
11. "Zack Snyder's Justice League" (2021)
It's obnoxiously long and actually makes less sense than the theatrical cut. But this is still the quintessential Zack Snyder experience -- and thus it is just such a cool movie to watch. What it lacks in brains it makes up for with sheer audacity.
10. "Batman Forever" (1995)
Hits just the right tone for what Joel Shumacher was trying to do with the two films he directed. Tommy Lee Jones, as Two Face, is doing stuff in this movie that is hard to believe even today, given his perpetual sour face in nearly every other movie he's been in.
9. "The LEGO Batman Movie" (2017)
Funny, sweet and self-deprecating -- exactly what we needed in the wake of the disaster that was "Batman v Superman."
8. "The Dark Knight" (2008)
Should be way shorter, but Heath Ledger's Joker is far and away the best villain in any of these movies. Ledger elevates what would otherwise be just another self-indulgent Christopher Nolan exercise into an endlessly watchable picture.
7. "Superman: The Movie" (1978)
This is the gold standard of Superman movies, and was the best superhero movie bar none for many, many years. John Williams' score soars, and so does the believable and compelling romance between Superman and Lois Lane. The film convincingly blended camp (in the form of Gene Hackman's wonderful Lex Luthor), an epic origin story that actually felt epic, and funny lines. The scene in which Supes and Lois fly together is one of the most beautiful metaphors for new love ever captured on film.
6. "Batman Returns" (1992)
One of the best of the franchise because it's really just a political thriller. The Penguin emerges from the sewer and runs for mayor of Gotham! It's great stuff, especially as we continue to watch the rise of Trump in our world.
5. "Constantine" (2005)
A happy balance of serious and ridiculous, manages to find exactly the right tone for this weird religious fantasy and a cast led by Keanu Reeves. They all seem to get it.
4. "Batman: The Movie" (1966)
Has a timelessness that none of the other films do, and it's just a delight from beginning to end thanks to Adam West's winking Batman and the coalition of villains who can't stop cackling maniacally. Watching it again recently, I found it functions almost perfectly as a parody of the super-serious Christopher Nolan Batfilms, which is incredible.
3. "Aquaman" (2018)
It's not often that we get a comic book movie that is: full on ridiculous; loves how ridiculous it is; and is made with skill by a legitimately great filmmaker. James Wan's "Aquaman" is all of that, and it's just a wonderful experience.
2. "Batman Begins" (2005)
The most complete film, on its own, in the entire live-action franchise. It's just, like, a regular movie... except it's about Batman. It has actual characters and everything, and Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne even has emotions. It's weird.
1. "The Suicide Squad" (2021)
After Disney caved to a bad faith campaign to have director James Gunn fired, Gunn responded by making one of the best and most raw comic book movies ever. It's gross, funny, mean and heartfelt -- this is the work of a director at the very top of his game.
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James Gunn’s cynical action flick is a blast, but how does it stack up against the other great movies based on DC Comics?
Films based on DC properties go back nearly a century to those ancient Batman and Superman serials. That's a lot of history -- how does James Gunn's violent and hilarious "The Suicide Squad" stack up against everything that's come before?
