Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) is decidedly a movie about women -- and that was no accident. From the outset, star and producer Margot Robbie envisioned it as a movie about female friendships.
Robbie was heavily involved in the production of the Birds of Prey. She and writer Christina Hodson had a very specific vision for how the female leads would coalesce as on-screen counterparts. "She really wanted to see Harley with girlfriends, Harley in a girl gang. Harley is such a naturally sociable character. And I think there was just a general longing to see girls together on screen -- women being friends,” Hodson told Variety.
According to Robbie's husband Tom Ackerly, this need to watch women interact with each other on-screen likely stems from her own female friendships. "She has a group of friends in the U.K.; she has a group of friends in Australia; she has a group of girlfriends here,” he said. “They live fun and vivacious lives. And she was like, ‘I don’t see that on screen.’”
This absence of female friendships on the big screen made the production of Birds of Prey feel "urgent" to Robbie, but she and co-producer Susan Kroll wanted it to be fun. "But at the end of the day, it’s a really fun, badass group of women getting together. It’s a ride. It’s a crazy ride,” Kroll explained.
Directed by Cathy Yan from a script by Christina Hodson, Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) stars Margot Robbie, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Rosie Perez, Ewan McGregor, Steven Williams, Derek Wilson, Dana Lee, Francois Chau, Charlene Amoia, Chris Messina and Matthew Willig. The film is scheduled for release on Feb. 7, 2020.