Birds Of Prey - 10 Reasons To Be Excited
5. The Film Is Led By Women
2020 will truly be the year of women in the comic book film genre, with Black Widow and Wonder Woman 1984 also set to debut. But Birds of Prey gets the honour of kicking the whole year off, and what a way to do it with the creative partnership of director Cathy Yan and writer Christina Hodson. Not only does this guarantee a true female gaze, but the two also have promising backgrounds of their own.
Cathy Yan was sought after for the film following the great reception of her film Dead Pigs during the Sundance Film Festival in 2018. According to Yan herself, she was ultimately chosen as the director based on her understanding of the property in her pitch and was enticed by the dark humour of Hodson's script. Prior to becoming a filmmaker, Yan was a reporter for the Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal, which will no doubt have informed her focus on human drama.
The prospect of Yan's dramatic sensibilities fleshing out characters that may have gone underdeveloped by many other directors is an exciting one, only topped off by Hodson herself.
Her scripts have appeared in Hollywood's blacklist - an annual list of the best unproduced scripts - and has recently celebrated a critical success with 2018's Bumblebee (also featuring a leading woman). And, if that's not enough, Warner Bros. has already commissioned Hodson for screenplays for The Flash and Batgirl.
The level of trust exhibited by the studio is a great omen for a film that could have easily withered in development hell, and is certainly a cause for excitement.