Mary Elizabeth Winstead (’Fargo,’ ‘10 Cloverfield Lane’) and Jurnee Smollett-Bell (‘True Blood,’ ‘Lovecraft Country’) are to set to play Huntress and sonic-screaming vigilante Black Canary alongside Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn in the upcoming ‘Suicide Squad’ spinoff ‘Birds of Prey,’ Deadline has learned.
In addition to Harley Quinn, Huntress and Black Canary, the film is rumoured to feature other DC Comics characters like GCPD detective Renee Montoya, and a young Cassandra Cain, with the all-female group going up against one of Gotham City’s brutally sadistic kingpins, Black Mask.
Other actresses on the shortlist for the project included Gugu Mbatha-Raw (‘Beauty and the Beast’), Sofia Boutella (‘Climax’), Margaret Qualley (‘Death Note’), and Cristin Milioti (‘Black Mirror’).
Cathy Yan, who made her directorial debut with the darkly comic ‘Dead Pigs,’ is attached to direct the project, working from a script by ‘Bumblebee’ scribe Christina Hodson. Margot and her Luckychap banner will produce alongside Sue Kroll, and Bryan Unkeless of Clubhouse Pictures
Production on ‘Birds of Prey’ is expected to get underway early next year.