Gotham City Sirens officially on pause, Bright 2 still in the works

Before Cathy Yan's BIRDS OF PREY (AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN) came along, Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment were toying with the idea of assigning SUICIDE SQUAD director David Ayer to a big screen adaptation of the female-fronted DC property Gotham City Sirens. Unfortunately, as Warners bore witness to less-than-desirable reactions to the director's team-based superhero spectacle, the studio began to rethink their approach to launching a female-focused film starring some of the comic label's most notorious femme fatales.

Recently while speaking with Slash Film about what projects he has on deck, Ayer was asked to give an update on the long-gestating Gotham City Sirens film. “No, I think it’s on pause,” Ayer admitted to the outlet. After officially confirming that Gotham City Sirens is on hold, Ayer revealed that at one point Warners had offered him a Suicide Squad sequel, saying, “I had a chance to do it, but I went another way.”

Be that as it may, Ayer has no intention of abandoning the comic book film genre anytime soon. “I love the world creation of it and I love the power of the IP and the fans,” Ayer explained. He then added, “It’s dangerous. It’s like juggling chainsaws, but I am drawn to it and it’s definitely an arena I’ll play in again.”

While I have my doubts with regard to a Gotham City Sirens film being officially announced anytime soon, it's entirely possible that if Birds of Prey performs like gangbusters at the box office that Warners could revisit the idea as a potential sequel to Yan's outrageous DC outing.

Meanwhile, in other Ayer-related news, the director says that a sequel to his 2017 action-fantasy film BRIGHT is still in the works.

“Still in development,” Ayer said. “We’re working on it so hopefully we’ll be able to mount that up soon.”

Seeing as it's been a while since BRIGHT made the scene, allow me to refresh your memory on this one. BRIGHT arrived in 2017 as one of Netflix's first attempts at delivering an original feature on the streaming platform. With a price tag of $90 million, BRIGHT starred Will Smith as a human cop partnered with an orc (Joel Edgerton) in a modern day Los Angeles populated by mythical creatures. At the time of its release, BRIGHT was marred by negative reviews that highlighted the film's under-developed plot and shallow character chemistry. Prior to these reactions, Netflix had announced a sequel to BRIGHT before the film's streaming debut, saying that the world presented in the first film would be fleshed out as the story continued.

“It’s a great opportunity for all of us to explore the world more,” Ayer told Slash Film. “I think people felt like there was a lot of doorways to explore. People were like, ‘Tell us about the dragon. Tell us about this, the history.’ So it’s a very rich world and I think we’re going to drill down some more.”

While BRIGHT might not have hit all the marks for all people on its first go, it's entirely possible that Ayer has big plans for the sequel. Should the film come to fruition, would you be tuning in? Let us know your thoughts on both Gotham City Sirens being placed on pause and the possibility of a BRIGHT sequel in the comments section down below.