10 Upcoming Comic Book Films (And Who Should Direct Them)

5. Gotham City Sirens: Nicole Holofcener

Fox Searchlight

Despite the fairly disastrous reception Suicide Squad had to deal with when it released, Warner Bros. are, supposedly, ready to give David Ayer another directing gig, on another DC property no less.

Said gig will purportedly involve a Suicide Squad spin-off, operating under the title of the criminally overlooked Paul Dini/Guillem March series, Gotham City Sirens. Margot Robbie is due to reprise her role as Harley Quinn for the film, although her co-leads - Poison Ivy and Catwoman - are yet to be cast.

Casting aside, having Ayer in the director's chair again is a massive mistake on WB's behalf. While Suicide Squad was indeed financially successful, production issues marred its release and it was a critical disaster in every sense of the word. We know that Ayer can perform when necessary (both End of Watch and Fury are great films), but he's just not fit for the DCEU, nor for Gotham City Sirens in particular.

Nicole Holofcener, however, would do wonders with the right material. Having lent her talents to Parks and Recreation and Gilmore Girls, the writer/director is a clear fit for the production. Her 2013 film, Enough Said, also debuted to critical acclaim, and picked up a plethora of nominations during the 2014 awards season, which intimates her skill behind the camera well enough, really.

Any Sirens film simply has to feel fun, and Holofcener - with her experience on shows like Parks and Rec - is the right person to convey that feel on the big screen.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.