Joker-Harley Quinn Movie in the Works With Jared Leto, Margot Robbie
VARIETY – Warner Bros. is developing an untitled tentpole movie starring Jared Leto as the Joker and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn.
Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, who direct and exec produce NBC’s “This Is Us,” are in final negotiations to direct the villain movie as part of the expanding DC Entertainment universe.
Leto and Robbie will reprise the roles they played in the studio’s 2016 super-villain mash-up “Suicide Squad.” The studio has not unveiled any logline other than a “criminal love story.”
And the Joker-Harley Quinn project is separate from Warner’s recently unveiled standalone Joker origin movie being developed as a potential directing vehicle for Todd Phillips of “The Hangover” — which will not star Leto.
Ficarra and Requa directed Robbie and Will Smith in the 2015 heist movie “Focus.” Their other big-screen credits include “I Love You Phillip Morris,” “Crazy, Stupid, Love” and “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.”
Warner Bros. has been attempting to take advantage of Leto and Robbie — the two most popular stars of “Suicide Squad,” which received underwhelming reviews. The film, directed by David Ayer, was a solid box office hit, grossing $745 million worldwide and the studio subsequently announced that it was working on a “Suicide Squad” sequel.
WB revealed in December that Robbie and Ayer were re-teaming on the female DC villains movie “Gotham City Sirens,” based on a comic series launched by DC in 2009 with the Harley Quinn, Catwoman, and Poison Ivy. The new Joker-Harley Quinn project appears to have superseded “Gotham City Sirens” at this point.
Warner Bros. has been attempting to exploit the DC characters above and beyond its mainstay Batman and Superman characters to compete effectively against the ongoing success of the Disney-Marvel tentpoles. It succeeded this summer with the impressive performance of “Wonder Woman” as the fourth installment in the studio’s DC Extended Universe, which launched with 2013’s “Man of Steel,” followed by last year’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and “Suicide Squad.”
Its next entry will come on Nov. 17 with “Justice League,” which will feature Ben Affleck as Batman, Henry Cavill as Superman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Ezra Miller as The Flash and Ray Fisher as The Cyborg with Zack Snyder directing. The sixth entry is the “Aquaman” standalone movie, starring Momoa with James Wan directing. That movie, which began shooting in May in Australia, is set for a Dec. 21, 2018, launch.
“Wonder Woman 2” is the only other movie in the DC Extended Universe that’s been given a release date — Dec. 13, 2019.
Robbie’s Tonya Harding biopic “I, Tonya” will premiere next month at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Robbie and Di Novi both have first-look deals with Warner Bros. under their respective LuckyChap Entertainment and Di Novi Pictures shingles. The duo, who worked together on the crime drama Focus, are also partnered to produce the screen adaption of Gin Phillips’ contained thriller Beautiful Things.
Carmen Lewis will produce for Di Novi along with LuckyChap’s Tom Ackerley and Josey McNamara. For Warner Bros., Chantal Nong and Sheila Walcott will oversee the project, whose plot is currently being kept under wraps.
Townend’s script Contingency Protocol appeared on the 2016 Black List, and he eventually sold it to Broad Green in a six-figure deal, with Akiva Goldsman’s Weed Road and Bob Cooper and Richard Saperstein’s Storyscape attached to produce.
The Suicide Squad actress is set to produce DC’s villain ensemble Gotham City Sirens, where she will reprise her fan-favorite role of Harley Quinn. Robbie will next be seen in the Tonya Harding biopic, I, Tonya, which will premiere at TIFF. She is repped by CAA, Management 360 and Jackoway Tyerman.
Di Novi recently made her directorial debut with the Rosario Dawson-starring Unforgettable. Her upcoming projects include Sony’s Little Women adaptation. She is repped by CAA, Rain Management Group and Bloom Hergott.
