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Thread: Batgirl

  1. #1
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    Batgirl

    ‘Batgirl’ Movie: Joss Whedon to Direct Standalone Film (EXCLUSIVE)
    Dave McNary
    Film Reporter
    @Variety_DMcNary


    COURTESY OF DC COMICS/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK

    MARCH 30, 2017 | 09:30AM PT
    Batgirl is flying solo. The superheroine is getting her own standalone movie from filmmaker Joss Whedon.

    Whedon is nearing a deal to write, direct, and produce an untitled Batgirl pic for Warner Bros. as part of its DC Extended Universe.

    No other producers are currently attached. Toby Emmerich, president and chief content officer of Warner Bros. Pictures Group, is overseeing with Jon Berg and Geoff Johns. The new project originated in the past month.

    Batgirl is one of the most popular superheroes in the world, but has never gotten her own movie. The project will also feature other characters from the world of Gotham.

    Batgirl first appeared in DC Comics in 1967 as Barbara Gordon, the daughter of Gotham City police commissioner James Gordon in “The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl!” by writer Gardner Fox and artist Carmine Infantino.

    The Batgirl project will be the second movie from DC Films to star a female lead after Gal Gadot’s “Wonder Woman,” which opens June 2. Extensive footage of the film was shown Wednesday at CinemaCon.

    Whedon would be making a big move from the Marvel Cinematic Universe to its DC counterpart, having written and directed “The Avengers” and “Avengers: Age of Ultron” for Disney-Marvel. He also created the television series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Angel,” “Firefly,” “Dollhouse,” and “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”

    Warner Bros.’ DC Extended Universe launched with 2013’s “Man of Steel,” followed by last year’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and “Suicide Squad.” Its upcoming films, which have already been dated, include “Wonder Woman”; “Justice League,” debuting Nov. 17; and “Aquaman,” starring Jason Momoa and hitting theaters in December of 2018.

    The studio is also developing a “Suicide Squad” sequel and “Gotham City Sirens,” a spinoff to “Suicide Squad” with Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn character; “The Batman,” starring Ben Affleck with Matt Reeves directing; a “Shazam” film and a Black Adam spinoff starring Dwayne Johnson; and projects based on the Flash and Cyborg characters.

    Whedon is repped by CAA.
    Good play by DC. I'm looking forward to SS#2 & GCS.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
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  2. #2
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    Joss is out

    FEBRUARY 22, 2018 12:17pm PT by Borys Kit
    Joss Whedon Exits 'Batgirl' Movie (Exclusive)


    Left, Jason LaVeris/Getty Images; Right, courtesy of DC Comics
    Joss Whedon

    The Bat signal is being dimmed … for now.

    Joss Whedon is saying goodbye to DC Entertainment heroine Batgirl.

    Whedon, the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer among other pop culture touchstones, is exiting the Warner Bros. feature project, which he was writing and was slated to direct.

    "Batgirl is such an exciting project, and Warners/DC such collaborative and supportive partners, that it took me months to realize I really didn't have a story," Whedon on Thursday told The Hollywood Reporter in a statement. Referring to DC president Geoff Johns and Warner Bros. Picture Group president Toby Emmerich, he added, "I'm grateful to Geoff and Toby and everyone who was so welcoming when I arrived, and so understanding when I…uh, is there a sexier word for 'failed'?"

    Whedon came on to the Batgirl project in March 2017 with the hopes of bringing to the big screen a companion to the female empowerment icon Wonder Woman, with this one tied to the most popular character in comics, Batman. Batgirl is Barbara Gordon, the daughter of Gotham City police commissioner James Gordon.

    But sources say Whedon, after a year of trying, could not crack the code of what a Batgirl movie should be. Wonder Woman, meanwhile, became a cultural phenomenon as well as one of the biggest hits and most acclaimed movies of 2017.

    Industry sources add that even as Whedon faced story issues, in today's cultural environment, a male filmmaker may have faced greater public scrutiny if he were to have tackled a movie with lead characters of such feminist importance as Batgirl or Wonder Woman, much like a white filmmaker would have seen backlash taking on the Black Panther movie.

    Whedon has been credited as a pioneering voice for female-focused genre fare, having created the hit TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer two decades ago.

    He does have a strong relationship with Warner Bros., which brought him into the company's DC fold to take over last year's Justice League when director Zack Snyder was sidelined due to a family tragedy.

    Whedon will face no shortage of suitors, as Netflix, Apple and others will likely vie for the next creation from the writer-director behind such cult TV series as Firefly and Dollhouse.

    BORYS KIT
    THRnews@thr.com
    borys_kit
    Bummer because I think he would've done a decent job of it, but the cultural point is well taken.
    Gene Ching
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  3. #3
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    And why isn't it Batwoman again?

    It's certainly an intriguing media trend - Wonder Woman directed by a woman. Black Panther directed by someone of African descent.

    Why a Female Director Can Give Us the ‘Batgirl’ We Deserve
    By Owen Gleiberman @OwenGleiberman Chief Film Critic


    CREDIT: ILLUSTRATION: VARIETY; PHOTOS: REX/SHUTTERSTOCK

    The announcement that Joss Whedon is stepping down as writer and director of the “Batgirl” film that’s currently in pre-production at Warner Bros. arrives as good news, even if you’re not one of those people (like me) who thinks that Whedon, as a creator of comic-book cinema, has shown more energy than poetry (especially in the egregiously chaotic “Avengers: Age of Ultron”).

    Whedon admitted yesterday that he’d “failed” to come up with a story that could make a “Batgirl” movie work. But given how rarely most people in the film business admit to failure, could it be that his heart just wasn’t in it? Whedon first staked his claim, in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” by shepherding a key pop-culture heroine. But it now seems likely that he felt the pressure, in the post-#MeToo world, of being a male director struggling to contort himself into the mindset of one of the most legendary of female superheroes.

    With Whedon’s exit, the door is now open for a female director to take on the job of forging a “Batgirl” for our time. And let’s be explicit about why that would — and hopefully will — be a fantastic thing, quite apart from the obvious and essential moral issue of equality in hiring in Hollywood.

    Superhero movies are fantasies, but the best of them have found a way to overlap the real world. The question at the heart of any “Batgirl” movie, at least if it’s going to be more than just another overcooked action cog in the DC Universe, needs to be: Who — really — is Batgirl? What drives her, what possesses her, what makes her tick? Like Batman, she’s a night stalker with no superpowers, emerging from an impulse of dark nobility. So for this movie to work, she needs to be not just a bat-eared icon, but a character with layers, a mistress of the night who can speak in a larger-than-life way to the experience of women. Because let’s not forget that that’s what great comic-book characters do. In saving the world, they say something about us.

    Yes, a male filmmaker could direct “Batgirl” and, theoretically, work on that level of drama and understanding. But isn’t this one case where it simply makes sense to say that a woman filmmaker has the potential to bring something bold and new and experiential to the equation? (Writer Roxane Gay has already offered to pen the script.)

    Batgirl didn’t appear on the 1960s “Batman” TV series until its third and final season, starting in 1967 (her appearance coincided with the January 1967 Detective Comics issue “The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl!”), but like everyone else on that show, she was suffused with personality. Each time she showed up, the actress Yvonne Craig made her presence felt. As Barbara Gordon, the daughter of Commissioner Gordon, she was a demure librarian minding her manners, but when she put on her spangled purple-and-yellow Batgirl suit, with its mask attached to a mane of flaming red hair, she was a woman transformed, with a touch of the dominatrix fury that Diana Rigg brought to “The Avengers.” Batgirl drove a cool motorcycle (also purple) and had an authoritative martial-artsy way of kicking her way to glory during the show’s bam!-pow! fight scenes.

    But in that sense, she was literally a sidekick. The “Batgirl” movie will place her front and center, and that’s an opportunity that will hinge on the imagination of the woman behind the camera. So who should that be?

    Many would rush to nominate Kathryn Bigelow, and as someone who always loves to see the most brilliant and bravura of filmmakers tackle pop genres, I’d be among the legions to say: Of course! Thirty years ago, Bigelow’s first solo directorial outing, the vampire thriller “Near Dark” (1987), was a night-bloom fantasy, at once sensational and subtle; in a better world, she might have made “Batgirl” back then. But if we assume, for the sake of argument, that Bigelow isn’t interested, it’s worth noting a crucial piece of background about who can, and should, helm a superhero fantasy.

    Last year, Patty Jenkins, the director of “Wonder Woman,” became a filmmaker who spearheaded a paradigm shift. But that success could hardly have been predicted by her resume before that movie: a sprinkling of television episodes (“The Killing,” “Arrested Development,” “Entourage”) and exactly one feature film, “Monster” (2003), the grisly docudrama that won Charlize Theron the best-actress Oscar for playing the tormented serial killer Aileen Wuornos. It was a movie that, in tone, spirit, and technique, couldn’t have been further removed from the action-soaked, CGI-spangled Marvel universe. And, indeed, it’s become routine for studios to tap indie filmmakers with no experience in the mega-budget franchise machine — like, say, James Gunn — to suddenly be the directors of epic-scale comic-book movies.

    So the person who directs “Batgirl” doesn’t have to come with a kinetic/fantasy background. If you were looking for someone who did have that background, a sturdy choice might be Michelle MacLaren, the veteran television director who’s known for her work on “Breaking Bad,” “The Walking Dead,” and “Game of Thrones,” and who very nearly did direct “Wonder Woman.” But, in fact, it might be more exciting if the director of “Batgirl” arrived from a different angle.

    It would be thrilling to see Ava DuVernay take a crack at it. She, of course, now has one big-budget fantasy under her belt — the upcoming “A Wrinkle in Time,” set to hit theaters on March 9 — and what DuVernay brings to the table, based simply on my viewing of her indie work (like the terrific “Middle of Nowhere”) and the masterly “Selma,” is a visual elegance and a singular ability to dramatize the inner power dynamics of any situation. I see DuVernay as a filmmaker of three dimensions who could root a comic-book movie in something real.

    Dee Rees, the director of “Mudbound” and “Pariah,” has the technical chops and the empathy, though I’m not sure she could inject the levity that’s become a requirement in superhero fare. A director who very much could is Lisa Cholodenko, and I’m compelled to say that even as I write her name, there’s a part of me that thinks, “Wait a minute! ‘The Kids Are All Right’ is a great film, but surely that’s a movie worlds removed from ‘Batgirl.’ She would be all wrong for it!” And then I have to remind myself that I’m thinking that way because I’m so locked into the rigid slots to which Hollywood has consigned female filmmakers.

    Which brings me to my first choice: Greta Gerwig. She’s a filmmaker who, at this point, will almost surely have a chance to direct a franchise blockbuster — that is, if she wants to go that way. And considering that she’s only just approaching her first Oscar ceremony as a nominee, with exactly one movie as a writer-director, the glorious “Lady Bird,” under her belt, taking that leap now might seem premature.

    But consider it: If Gerwig were to choose to direct a comic-book movie, what would be more ideally tailored to her playful intelligence than the prankish goth grandeur of “Batgirl”? She could imagine the character from the ground up, as someone funny and fierce, humane and empowered, iconic and mysterious. A woman who calls herself by a different name (Lady Bat?). The point being that hiring a female director to make “Batgirl” isn’t just about equal opportunity. It’s about Hollywood using the equality of opportunity as a new way to think outside the box. It’s time that people started saying things like, “Greta Gerwig making ‘Batgirl’? I’m not sure if I can see that. But actually, now that you mention it, why the f— not?”
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
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  4. #4
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    Screenwriter Christina Hodson

    APRIL 9, 2018 2:42PM PT
    Joss Whedon Replaced With ‘Bumblebee’ Screenwriter for ‘Batgirl’
    By Ariana Brockington


    CREDIT: COURTESY OF DC COMICS

    Screenwriter Christina Hodson has taken over to write a new script for DC’s “Batgirl” film, following the announcement that Joss Whedon is no longer attached to the project, Variety has learned.

    This will mark Hodson’s return to the DC Extended Universe after writing for The WB series “Birds of Prey.” Hodson previously wrote the screenplay for horror film “Shut In” with Naomi Watts and Jacob Tremblay and the 2017 thriller “Unforgettable” starring Rosario Dawson. Hodson has also been tapped to write the script for “Bumblebee,” the upcoming “Transformers” spinoff with Hailee Steinfeld and John Cena.

    Whedon exited the comic book movie in February, citing story issues. Whedon said in a statement, “’Batgirl’ is such an exciting project, and Warners/DC such collaborative and supportive partners, that it took me months to realize I really didn’t have a story.”

    After Whedon’s departure, author Roxane Gay volunteered to write the script and seemed to ignite interest from DC Comics. Gay had tweeted, “Hey [DC Comics] I can write your ‘Batgirl’ movie, no prob.”

    At the time, Michele Wells, a Warner Bros. vice president who works on DC films as well, had replied to Gay with her email address.

    “Batgirl” will portray the life of Barbara Gordon, the daughter of police commissioner James Gordon, who doubles as one of Batman’s sidekicks named Batgirl.

    DC Extended Universe has a series of titles that are predicted to be released before the heroine’s stand-alone film. “Aquaman,” starring Jason Momoa, is expected to hit theaters on Dec. 21, while “Wonder Woman 2” has a set release date of Nov. 1, 2019.
    I haven't seen anything by Hodson. But still, the critical question is 'who will play Barbara?'
    Gene Ching
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  5. #5
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    Cathy Yan

    Not sure if this new spin-off is Gotham City Sirens or something else, but I'll post it here for now, as well as on Batgirl.

    APRIL 17, 2018 8:22AM PT
    Cathy Yan to Direct Harley Quinn Spinoff Starring Margot Robbie
    By Justin Kroll @krolljvar
    Film Reporter


    Suicide Squad Harley Quinn
    CREDIT: COURTESY OF WARNER BROS.

    Cathy Yan has been tapped to direct a DC spinoff movie centered on crazed supervillain Harley Quinn. The girl gang movie will be based on the “Birds of Prey” comic, with Margot Robbie attached to star.

    Robbie’s LuckyChap is producing with Sue Kroll and her Kroll & Co Entertainment, along with Bryan Unkeless of Clubhouse Pictures.

    Yan, a former Wall St. Journal reporter who made her feature debut with Sundance entry “Dead Pigs,” will be the second female filmmaker to direct a DC film, following Patty Jenkins with “Wonder Woman.” She will also be the first Asian woman to helm a movie from the DC Comics universe. DC previously tapped Ava DuVernay to direct “New Gods,” which is still in development.

    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.” Sources add that script is still being worked on, but Yan is likely to take over directing reins once the script is done.

    Production is expected to start at the end of the year after Robbie finishes shooting Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” for which she is currently in negotiations to play Sharon Tate.

    The sequel to the Harley Quinn-starring “Suicide Squad” is also expected to begin production in 2018. Gavin O’Connor is on board to write the sequel and is also in talks to direct the film that co-stars Will Smith and Jared Leto.

    Yan is repped by CAA. Deadline Hollywood first reported the news.
    I suppose I should start a thread on Once Upon a Time in Hollywood because if it's about Tate, it should include Bruce Lee.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
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  6. #6
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    Irredeemable

    EXCLUSIVE
    ‘Irredeemable’ ‘Batgirl’ movie gets ‘shelved’ by Warner Bros. despite $70M price tag: source

    By Johnny Oleksinski
    August 2, 2022 3:20pm Updated

    The DC Comics film “Batgirl” will be completely “shelved” by Warner Bros., a top Hollywood source told The Post.

    That means it won’t hit theaters or the streaming service HBO Max. Fans will not see it.

    The reportedly $70 million movie (the source said the budget was actually more than $100 million), which was doing test screenings for audiences in anticipation of a late 2022 debut, would rank among the most expensive cinematic castoffs ever.

    Those tests were said to be so poorly received by moviegoers that the studio decided to cut its losses and run, for the sake of the brand’s future. It’s a DC disaster.

    “They think an unspeakable ‘Batgirl’ is going to be irredeemable,” the source said.

    The Post has reached out to Warner Bros. for comment.

    It’s been a monthslong walk of shame for the movie. “Batgirl,” directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (“Bad Boys for Life”), received not a single mention at DC’s Comic-Con panel in San Diego in July — an unusual move that raised industry eyebrows. The much-publicized event, after all, is designed to boost exposure for forthcoming projects just like this one.


    The movie “Batgirl” will be shelved by Warner Bros.

    Marvel’s Comic-Con presentation, on the flip side, announced more than a dozen films in the so-called Phases 5 and 6 of the MCU, to be released through fall 2025, with even more surely in the hopper.

    “Batgirl,” which stars Leslie Grace (“In the Heights”) in the title role, alongside J.K. Simmons, Michael Keaton and Brendan Fraser, was originally planned for an HBO Max release. The Puck newsletter reported in April that WB’s then-chair, Toby Emmerich, was considering a theatrical run for the film too.

    But Emmerich stepped down in June to form his own production company — not long after Warner Bros. merged with Discovery and David Zaslav became the CEO of the new entity. He replaced Emmerich with MGM’s Michael De Luca (who likely had to deliver the “Bat” news) and Pam Abdy.

    While the film’s co-directors have done some scattered interviews about casting, the studio has been mum on plans for “Batgirl” ever since.

    Shelving a multimillion-dollar effort would not be unusual for Zaslav, a ruthless cost-cutter. Remember, he’s the same guy who gave the $300 million streaming service CNN+ the ax just days after its splashy launch because it didn’t snare enough subscribers.

    The budget-conscious CEO, according to Variety, has split WB into multiple segments, including a reorganized “DC-based film production” group.

    With that in mind, WB is said to be searching for a head honcho to run the flailing DC Extended Universe and whip it into coherent shape, like Kevin Feige did with the far more successful Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is owned by Disney. The current president of DC film production is Walter Hamada. Warner Bros. Discovery will report its Q2 earnings and announce future plans on Thursday.

    DC urgently needs all the help it can get.

    Unlike the behemoth that is Marvel Studios, whose movies occasionally get bad reviews but reliably print money, DC is a disorganized, confusing, not-very-profitable mess. “Aquaman” and “Wonder Woman 1984” got mixed notices from critics; “Birds of Prey” and “The Suicide Squad” were admired flops.

    “The Batman” performed OK at the box office for Warner Bros., netting $770 million with an R rating, and got good notices. However, the only DC Extended Universe film that has managed to beat the $1 billion box office gross of “The Dark Knight,” which came out 14 long years ago (“Joker” with Joaquin Phoenix was not part of the DCEU), was “Aquaman.” Meanwhile, Marvel’s pandemic-era “Spider-Man: No Way Home” has grossed $1.9 billion worldwide and “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” has managed a solid $955 million.

    Lately, DC’s nasty star drama has eclipsed the buzz — such as it is — surrounding its movies.

    Ezra Miller, who plays the Flash, has caused a string of embarrassing controversies this year. In the spring, the actor was twice arrested in Hawaii — first for disorderly conduct and harassment, then for second-degree assault. Then in June, the Standing Rock Sioux tribal court issued an order of protection against the 29-year-old for allegedly using “violence, intimidation, threat of violence, fear, paranoia, delusions and drugs” to groom an 18-year-old whom the actor has known since she was 12. (Miller has not publicly commented on the latest allegation; a police investigation into the Hawaii incidents is reportedly ongoing.)

    Ben Affleck, meanwhile, consistently claims he’s done with playing the Caped Crusader — even going so far as to allow Robert Pattinson to take over the role in this year’s “The Batman” — but keeps coming back like a bad ex-boyfriend. It was reported this week by Screen Rant that the actor will appear yet again as Bruce Wayne in “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.” Perplexing.

    Lebanon also blocked Gal Gadot's "Wonder Woman" films over her IDF ties, as the actress served in the Israeli armed forces for two years.
    Plans for a third “Wonder Woman” movie, starring Gal Gadot, have been vague so far.
    And Gal Gadot is said to be starring in “Wonder Woman 3,” but the actress and director Patty Jenkins have said nothing — including a title or release date — beyond that they’re throwing around script ideas. DC, which squanders legendary properties with abandon, appears to have no grand plan whatsoever.

    Soon, however, Wonder Woman won’t be the one holding the golden lasso anymore. Instead, power will be wielded by an all-controlling DC film production head who will attempt to turn things around. Before they arrive, killing “Batgirl” is Step

    “This is the end of DC as a hobby,” the source said.
    Now I kinda wanna see this...even a rough cut. How bad could it be?
    Gene Ching
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  7. #7
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    The Directors speak...

    ‘Batgirl’ Directors on Becoming Part of “Movie History” Due to Cancellation, Why They’d Still Work With Warner Bros.
    Bilall Fallah and Adil El Arbi discuss the fallout from the controversial scrapping of their $90 million superhero feature and the huge outpouring of support they've received from across the industry.


    BY ALEX RITMAN

    DECEMBER 5, 2022 12:53AM

    Bilall Fallah and Adil El Arbi TIM P. WHITBY/GETTY IMAGES FOR THE RED SEA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL)

    There are upsides and downsides to having a film you’ve been hard at work on be abruptly shelved at the last minute by a number-crunching studio boss.

    Two filmmakers who can attest to this are Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, directors of the DC universe entry Batgirl, which in August became the highest-profile casualty of David Zaslav’s cost-cutting at his newly combined Warner Bros. Discovery when it was unceremoniously canceled while in postproduction. With a budget of $90 million, the movie is considered among the most expensive cinema projects ever to be assigned to the scrap heap.

    For the two Belgian directors, who first made a mark with the explosive 2020 smash hit Bad Boys for Life, there was obviously a huge amount of disappointment in not being able to share their work alongside their cast and crew, including the likes of Brendan Fraser, J.K. Simmons, Michael Keaton and lead star Leslie Grace, who plays Batgirl.

    “You’ve got to imagine, we’re two fanboys, and for one second we were in the Batman universe, following in the footsteps of Zack Snyder and Christopher Nolan, and then it was just like we woke up and it was a dream,” says Arbi, speaking from the sidelines of the Red Sea Film Festival in Saudi Arabia.

    But then, for all the sorrow at seeing their chance of becoming part of the superhero world snatched away at the 11th hour, they say the amount of positive reactions they personally received has been hugely gratifying.

    “It was unbelievable how much support we got,” says Fallah, noting that the likes of James Gunn and Edgar Wright reached out to them, along with studio execs from Paramount and Sony, and even Marvel’s Kevin Feige. “There was so much support from people in the industry, it felt like all the artists were supporting us, and that’s a great feeling, because you feel like you’re not alone.”

    Also, given that Batgirl’s cancellation was somewhat unprecedented in terms of its size and the manner in which it took place, while Arbi and Fallah’s names are yet to be carved into superhero folklore, they have been added to Hollywood’s lengthy and colorful annals.

    “This is something that never happened before, so we’ve kind of become part of movie history without even trying!” says Arbi.

    Although a secret screening of Batgirl took place on the Warner Bros. lot for the cast and crew, Arbi and Fallah note that they couldn’t attend (they were in Belgium at the time), and that the version shown wasn’t their latest edit (but “somewhere in the middle”). The film’s cancellation actually happened just as they’d entered the first stage of the editing process, with still plenty of work left to do to get the feature finished.

    “We still needed additional photography, there were a lot of scenes missing, and the VFX was not there,” says Arbi. “I don’t know if [Warner Bros.] are really gonna go for that, but we’ll see, sometimes we think it’s ****ed, but sometime it’s like … maybe!”

    Given the experience with Batgirl, would the two work with Warner. Bros Discovery again?

    “Yeah, we’d still work with them,” says Fallah. “But on the condition that the movie comes out. I mean, if Warner says, ‘Do you want to do the next Batman or Superman?,’ of course we’ll say yes. Just so long as the movie comes out!”

    On that note, while Gunn reached out individually to offer his support, there hasn’t yet been a more formal meeting with him since he’s been installed as DC Studio’s co-CEO. “But the meetings are in the books,” says Arbi.

    One thing that the noise around Batgirl has done is add some sizable momentum behind the director’s latest feature. Rebel, which screened in Cannes and is part of the Red Sea Film Festival lineup in Jeddah, is a pacey action thriller about two Muslim Belgian brothers dealing with identity alongside ISIS radicalization and recruitment during the war in Syria.

    For both Arbi and Fallah, who are both Muslim and of Moroccan descent, Rebel marks their most personal film to date, a movie that has been in their heads since 2011.

    “We started to see people that we know go to Syria,” says Fallah, who notes that he comes from a neighborhood that had the highest percentage of youths recruited to fight for ISIS. “And they were my friends, people that I played soccer with, and I started to see them, one by one, going. And then afterward, to see the attacks in France and Belgium, it became very painful to see, because these guy had the same profile as us, they were Moroccan Belgium Muslims.”

    Other TV shows or movies dealing with the situation, they say, weren’t told from a Muslim perspective. “So that’s why we wanted to tell this story, with all the complexities and the nuances, because it’s not that simple,” says Fallah. “It became very personal and important.”

    The profile of Rebel, which is yet to secure a U.S. distributor (it’s being released in the U.K. by Signature in January, and has been picked up by Front Row in the Middle East), has undoubtedly been boosted by the Batgirl situation, as has that of Fallah and Arbi.

    Alongside a sequel to their 2018 Belgian crime thriller Gangsta, Arbi claims they may soon have the “green light for a big action movie in Hollywood, but we don’t want to jinx it.”

    Arbi also recently posted a somewhat cryptic Instagram post: a captionless image from animated series Batman Beyond that ran from 1999 to 2001. Could the two be returning, not just to Warner Bros., but to the world of Batman so soon after Batgirl’s untimely demise?

    “You know, maybe in the future … when Batman is not being made by Matt Reeves … . Batman Beyond is really super cool. And I just saw that and thought that’s really badass,” says Arbi. “So who knows? Maybe in the future one day if they ask us to do that, we wouldn’t say no. But you can dream, right?”
    I wonder how much of that $90M was spent...
    Gene Ching
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  8. #8
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    The Whale and Batgirl

    Dec 5, 2022 6:06am PT
    ‘Ms. Marvel’ Directors Tease New Hollywood Project, Discuss Brendan Fraser’s Oscar Buzz Reviving ‘Batgirl’


    By Rafa Sales Ross


    Courtesy of Getty

    “He is so, so talented,” gushes director Adil El Arbi when speaking to Variety about Brendan Fraser. The actor played villain Firefly in the now discarded Warner Bros. Discovery film “Batgirl,” directed by El Arbi in collaboration with his long-time partner, Bilall Fallah. “The way he played that character… It was one of the most memorable villains, so we’ll see. Maybe when he wins his Oscar they’ll want to show the movie,” concluded Adil, referring to Fraser’s Oscar buzz for Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale.”

    “[Fraser] is the nicest guy I’ve ever met in my life,” agrees Bilall, who fondly remembers the seven months of shooting “Batgirl” in Glasgow, Scotland. “I never had an experience like that, the whole city was working with us to make it possible. I hope we can get back.”

    “We might have it somewhere,” Adil says of the footage. Back in August, the filmmaker revealed Warner Bros. Discovery had blocked their access to all the material after scrapping the $90 million movie. (“I went on the server… Everything was gone,” he said at the time.) On their leeway in getting the film released, the Belgian director said: “We don’t have any influence on that,” but the duo remains hopeful the Leslie Grace-starrer will still see the light of day.

    What did see the light of day was “Rebel,” Adil & Bilall’s poignant tale of two Belgian Muslim brothers tangled in the complex web of radicalism in Syria. On having the film screen at the Red Sea Film Festival, in Jeddah, Adil says: “It’s very important for us because this movie is about the Middle East. It’s a great honor to be able to show the film to an audience from the Middle East because they are the ones primarily concerned by it.”

    “Rebel” perfectly encapsulates the duo’s rare ability to tell particular stories with a universal appeal, a discussion at the heart of Saudi’s efforts to kickstart a thriving film industry. “We try to learn from both experiences,” said Adil of being able to navigate between the European arthouse market and big Hollywood productions such as Will Smith-starring “Bad Boys for Life.” “When we are in Hollywood, we learn different technical techniques. In Europe, we can take a risk. We can use musical elements or talk about more controversial subjects, we can work on auteur movies. I think it’s a good balance to have the chance to work in both places, and that’s what we want to try to do in the future.”

    Telling a politically driven story with a big studio feel wouldn’t be possible without co-producing. “To make bigger movies, we need a bigger budget,” explains Adil. “‘Rebel’ doesn’t have the budget of a Hollywood production, but I think that the good thing about having smaller countries working together is that you can have a pretty nice budget and it also allows you to go international. You can have an international cast and an international crew. Arab cinema can really be developed together with countries like Belgium, Denmark and France. That’s a good counterforce to Hollywood.”

    Bilall agrees, adding that “it’s really wonderful to work with an international crew. We worked with a Jordanian crew in ‘Rebel,’ and to see their experience just makes us richer as directors and as human beings because we get to see different cultures.”

    “It was a milestone. It changed our lives,” says Bilall of Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund’s “City of God,” one of “Rebel’s” clear influences. “As directors, it opened our eyes. And there are also films like ‘La Haine,’ urban stories we love to see. We grew up in these worlds, so these are stories that we feel we have the authenticity to tell.”

    “We try to find the humanity in our characters,” adds Adil when commenting on how they can challenge Western preconceptions of Arab culture, “so you can really have empathy and then go inside the mind of a world you might not have known. That is our way of breaking those stereotypes.”

    So what does a duo of directors who have traveled the world, made films with both Marvel and DC and worked with names such as Michael Keaton and Martin Lawrence can still possibly have on their bucket list? Plenty, according to Adil and Bilall.

    “We want to make so many movies, to tell stories that are not being told. We also want to go into different genres, like science fiction or historical. We’ll be making movies until we die,” says Bilall enthusiastically, with Adil adding: “We want to find our own ‘Star Wars,’ not making a ‘Star Wars’ but finding something entirely new, something special.”

    For now, the duo is working on the sequel to their 2018 action film “Gangsta” and holding conversations on their next big Hollywood production, which they can’t disclose details about just yet. “We have no green light yet but are working on a big action movie in Hollywood. I don’t want to jinx it,” says Adil.
    It seems like such a waste to pull this up if it was so close to completion.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  9. #9
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    Saving Grace

    Feb 13, 2023 5:00am PT
    ‘Batgirl’ Star Leslie Grace Rejects Studio’s Claim the Axed Film Was Unreleasable: The Cut I Saw Was ‘Incredible’ (EXCLUSIVE)
    In her first major interview since 'Batgirl' was shelved, Leslie Grace opens up how she found out about the cancellation, possibly returning to DC and Brendan Fraser's 'really sweet' wrap gift
    By Marc Malkin

    Mark Adriane

    When “Batgirl” completed its seven-month production in Scotland, star Leslie Grace received a wrap gift from Brendan Fraser, who played her nemesis, Firefly, in the DC movie — a gold necklace that included two charms, a little bell and a pair of dice.

    “The card said a lot of really sweet things, but he basically said, ‘I give you this necklace because in this business you gotta have a little luck. So ring your bell and never stop,’” Grace says. “It was just like, Whoa. And after all this, it’s had so much meaning.”

    “All this” is the August bombshell that Warner Bros. Discovery had decided to kill the film, co-directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. After the first disappointing test screenings, WBD executives chose to take a tax write-off instead of trying to complete work on the film, which had cost the debt-ridden studio $90 million, and would have cost many more millions to finish.

    Grace says she had no idea the movie, originally set to stream on HBO Max, was shelved, until it was first reported by the New York Post.

    “I found out like the rest of you,” she says. “And then my phone just started blowing up.”

    Like Grace, Fraser says he was blindsided by the news. “I thought I was getting punked, but it checked out,” he says of reading the initial stories. “Then came hysterical laughter like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me?’ I know that the filmmakers and producers were expecting to hear from the studio about the film, and the anticipation was, ‘How do we broaden the movie out to take it from a streaming format to a theatrical release?’ But as we all know, it was the complete opposite. When we were expecting XYZ amount of support and money to expand scenes — to do pickup shots and those kinds of things — that was a gut punch. But then we learned that it was in the interest of writing down some debt? That part really stung.”

    Fraser immediately called Grace. “What I find most lamentable is that now a whole generation of little girls are going to have to wait longer to see a Batgirl and say, ‘Hey, she looks like me,’” he says. “That makes me sad. I know how good she was. And I know what this would mean to so many people.”

    Fraser gets emotional talking about working with Grace. “It was just magical to see how she was as quietly confident as a young actress in this breakthrough role and had a sense of purpose and dignity,” he says. “She has a work ethic that is unrivaled. She’s dynamite — and dynamite comes in small packages but still goes bang. We do battle each other several times. There was a lot of kicking and punching and getting hurt but we were always help each other to our feet after breaking set pieces and knocking the tar out of each other.”

    Grace is now back in the spotlight with “How to Win Friends and Disappear People,” a new comedy-thriller podcast series from QCode about a computer scientist (Soni Bringas) in New York City who discovers her neighbor, played by Grace, is a vampire.

    Variety talked at length with the 28-year-old Grace. It’s the first time she’s opened up in such depth since learning of Batgirl’s fate.

    When the news came out in August that the movie was being shelved, what went through your mind?

    It was like deflating a balloon. On that day, I was very much just taking it all in, but also so sure of the magic that happened — in my experience and what I saw in my cast, in our team — that I was like, “This must be some crazy thing that we have no control over.” I tend to be a very optimistic and positive person in these types of circumstances, and I just really leaned on the beauty of the idea that I got to have this experience in my life. Even though I would’ve loved to share that with the rest of the world, nothing can take that experience away from us.

    New DC Studios head Peter Safran most recently said the movie was “not releasable,” and that it could have could hurt DC. Is there anything in your mind that can justify that?

    I had my own meetings with Warner Bros. Film Group CEOs Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca, and they explained to me, on a granular level, what they felt about the project, things that were out of their hands, plans and budgets that were set in place before they were even part of the team. There are a lot of things that I learned through the experience about moviemaking, that as an actress you have no control over. They weren’t really specific on anything creative in terms of what they felt about the film and how it would’ve hurt DC creatively. But I’m a human being, and people have perceptions and people read things. And when words are expressed very lightly about work that people really dedicated a lot of time to — not just myself but the whole crew — I can understand how it could be frustrating.

    There was nothing that you saw while you were shooting that said, “This movie’s not going to work”?

    I’m not going to lie to you. In every film, there are obstacles, and our film was nothing short of that. Half of the shoot was night shoots in Scotland, where it never stops raining. So there were obstacles, but at the end of the day, because of the incredible crew, nothing that ever got in the way of us delivering what we knew we wanted to deliver for this film. At least from what I was able to see.

    Did you ever see a final cut of the film?

    That’s the one thing I asked for. I got to see the film as far as it got to; the film wasn’t complete by the time that it was tested. There were a bunch of scenes that weren’t even in there. They were at the beginning of the editing process, and they were cut off because of everything going on at the company. But the film that I got to see — the scenes that were there — was incredible. There was definitely potential for a good film, in my opinion. Maybe we’ll get to see clips of it later on.

    When you spoke to Variety last April, you had just wrapped the movie and you said you were already talking to the directors about a sequel.

    We still are. We were so excited about all the ideas that we had, because you can see long- term potential in the story that we were beginning to build.

    Obviously, Peter Safran and his co-chairman at DC, James Gunn weren’t there when this decision was made, but have they reached out to you?

    No, I haven’t heard from them. But I wish them the best on all the plans that they’ve got rolling out. They’ve got a lot of projects to handle, and it’s not an easy job.

    Matt Reeves’ “Batman” with Robert Pattinson is getting a sequel, and there’s talk that it will include more of the Bat family. Would you consider coming back to play Batgirl?

    We’ve definitely had conversations about Batgirl’s future and how Batgirl can make a resurgence. I think fans are looking forward to seeing that. We’ll just see where that takes us; I can’t say one way or the other if that is a reality at this point. I can’t speak too much about a future for Bat- girl or guarantee anything. The last thing that I would want to do is give folks any kind of inkling of something that I have not much control over — as we’ve learned.
    continued next post
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  10. #10
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    Continued from previous post


    Leslie Grace as Batgirl.
    Courtesy DC Films
    Let’s go back again to that first time you talked to Variety about “Batgirl.” You had just been cast and you spoke so eloquently and so passionately about what you, as Batgirl, would mean to young Latinas. What do you say to them now?

    Oh, man. That your journey is not a mistake. That everything in your journey can be learned from, can be transformative, can be inspirational and aspirational for someone that you might not even know. I’ve learned that you can make the choice to learn from things and transform it into something that’s positive for you, or you can be down in the dumps, I would say “Just keep going no matter what the obstacle is. If you have a passion for something, don’t let anything that stands in your way tell you that you aren’t worthy, capable, or have the potential to fulfill what you know you’re capable of doing.”

    Let’s talk about “How to Win Friends and Disappear People.” Did you record your parts all on your own or did you do it with your co-stars?

    I actually recorded before all the rest of the cast. I had already recorded all my parts and all the episodes when we found Soni a few weeks into production. It’s kind of like a self-tape scenario, where they had a reader who was incredible, who embodies all of the other characters that are not recorded yet.

    Are you already thinking of adapting it as a TV series or movie?

    QCode has done an amazing job of taking something that’s just a podcast and audible, and taking it to the screen. For me, coming in as a producer as well, and being able to create something along with Sophia and all of the QCode team, that felt like something we could potentially bring to screen with, basically, almost an all-Latino cast. That prospect is very exciting. I’m really looking forward to seeing how people respond to it. I think it’s a beautiful way to develop.

    You play a vampire. Are you a fan of the vampire genre?

    Yes, I’m a “Twilight” fan.

    Team Edward or team Jacob?

    I’m not going to lie to you. When it came out, I was very much team Jacob. I’m not going to front, but now I have to be a little bit biased. I’m a vampire myself, so I can’t be saying that out here in these streets. My vampire fam will come after me.

    This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.
    This is the DC film that I most want to see now...
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

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