The eye-catching Harley Quinn fight scene in The Suicide Squad has a deep connection to an old, obscure James Gunn project: Lollipop Chainsaw.
Gunn was asked about the "Harley-Vision" scene, where the anti-hero dispatches a house full of soldiers as cartoon flowers and birds erupt amidst all the blood. It's one of the most visually striking and surreal moments of the film, and the writer and director revealed where the idea came from.
"I did a video game called Lollipop Chainsaw... In that game, which I did with Suda in Japan, I always loved the way that the hearts and beautiful little things came out of people mixed with blood," Gunn said. "So a lot of it goes back to that, the aesthetic of mixing this horrible gore with Harley's starry-eyed way of looking at life and creating Harley-Vision basically. So that was something that came on very early. It was in the first draft of the script."
Released in 2012 for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, Lollipop Chainsaw was a collaboration between Suda51 and Gunn -- and fittingly, it was released outside of Japan by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Gunn developed the plot and characters, including lead zombie hunter/cheerleader Juliet, who bears a resemblance to Harley. The game received mixed reviews for its attempt to turn exploitation into satire, a balance Gunn always seems to be attempting to strike.
When it came time to augment Harley's on-screen portrayal, Gunn said he felt inspired to take a character with such a rich history and explore new sides of her.
"I love the character of Harley Quinn," Gunn said. "I love Paul Dini's original Harley Quinn. I think she's one of the most well-written comic book characters of all time and consistently well-written, not always, but a lot. Being able to speak in her voice and to write for her was a privilege, but I also felt incredibly comfortable doing it. She isn't a James Gunn character, because I didn't create her, in the same way, I created Ratcatcher II, or even King Shark in some ways. But she is totally a James Gunn character in that I get her. She isn't so different from Boltie in Super. So it's like, I love her character, I love who she is, and I felt extremely comfortable making this the most Harley of all Harleys that have been on the movie screen."
"I was just really creatively inspired with this movie, and I can come up with a bunch of BS about how I came up with that stuff," Gunn said of where he came up with the many twists and turns of the film. "But the truth is, I was just really inspired. As soon as I started writing the script, it just sort of lent itself to that, with all of the twists and turns, of being able to surprise people and also surprise me."
To experience Harley-Vision yourself, check out The Suicide Squad, now in theaters and streaming on HBO Max.
Source: Collider