Production on BIRDS OF PREY (AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN) got underway earlier this month and instead of hiding the production under a veil of intense security for the next year, we actually got our first (brief) peek at the film this morning. Naturally, this has folks chatting about the BIRDS OF PREY project once again, including the much-repeated tidbit that the film will be rated R, but will it?
When BIRDS OF PREY (AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN) was first announced, it was reported that Margot Robbie, who had initially pitched Warner Bros. on the project, had envisioned it as "R-rated girl gang film including Harley, because I was like, ‘Harley needs friends.’ Harley loves interacting with people, so don’t ever make her do a standalone film. She’s got to be with other people, it should be a girl gang. I wasn’t seeing enough girl gangs on screen, especially in the action space. So that was always a big part of it." The past few years have seen several R-rated comic-book movies hit the big-screen, such as DEADPOOL and LOGAN, but much like VENOM, another film which was long rumoured to be aiming for an R-rating, it seems that BIRDS OF PREY's R-rating is far from official. Our own Editor-in-Chief Paul Shirey reached out to Warner Bros. to get the word straight from the horses mouth.
As Shirey himself mentioned in a follow-up Tweet, this doesn't necessarily mean that the film won't be rated R at the end of the day, but it's certainly not a sure thing. Until BIRDS OF PREY has been completed and been through the hands of the MPAA, it's best to keep your dreams of an R-rated BIRDS OF PREY in check. Starring Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Huntress, Jurnee Smollett-Bell as Black Canary, Rosie Perez as Renee Montoya, Ella Jay Basco as Cassandra Cain, and Ewan McGregor as Black Mask, BIRDS OF PREY (AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN) will find Harley Quinn, Huntress, and Black Canary teaming up to protect Cassandra Cain when she comes across a diamond belonging to Black Mask, a kingpin in Gotham City's criminal underworld.
BIRDS OF PREY (AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN) is set for a February 7, 2020 release.