In hindsight, the bloody pig carcass sent in the post was probably an omen. In the four years since its release, Suicide Squad has become less a movie as it has a two-hour faux pas, or a porthole into a miserable netherworld through which only a handful of elements managed to escape.
It began, as so many things do, with Jared Leto making an ass of himself. Cast as The Joker, he sent obscene gifts to his castmates – such as used condoms, sex toys and that aforementioned pig – and entirely sucked the air out of every room he was in. It ended with everyone agreeing to back away anxiously, never to speak of the film again unless they really had to.
Suicide Squad’s tendrils remain vast, however. James Gunn's total reboot, which effectively pretends the original doesn't exist, is on release now. And in 2020 we had Birds of Prey, a sort-of spin-off movie revolving around Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn – one of the few well-received elements of its predecessor. She was single in that film, though; Leto’s Joker was written out and traded for a girl-gang of misfits, crime fighters and oddballs. It’s unmistakably wise.
Harley Quinn Spin Off Movie: Margot Robbie Has “so Much More To Do”
For a colossal mistake, Suicide Squad is also one that a hell of a lot of people saw. Released in August 2016, it grossed $750 million worldwide, proved alluring enough to woo A-list names who really didn’t need to be in it, and won an Oscar… albeit for hair and make-up.
That it was subsequently, and so loudly, brushed under the carpet, however, has made it one of the most fascinating microcosms of modern Hollywood. Where once enormous box office gross would be enough to convince a major studio that absolutely no tinkering would be required for round two, Suicide Squad marked an explosive new dawn for the blockbuster machine.
In a post-Joker world, the DC Comics Cinematic Universe (or “DCU”) is officially one of vaguely interconnected but largely self-contained action movies. An R-rating, meaning only those aged 17 and above can buy a ticket without a parent present, is also today a canny promotional tool, rather than the hindrance that it used to be. Suicide Squad was born in a very different climate, prior to the R-rated Deadpool becoming one of the biggest hits of 2016, and a time in which the DCU proudly existed as a photocopied version of everything Marvel.
Will Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn Be The First Superhero Of The #metoo Era?
Suicide Squad, in development at least, was described as a superpowered spin on Ocean’s Eleven – a story of a motley crew of freaks and weirdos, oestensible bad guys who the audience were asked to root for nonetheless. Just as Ocean’s Eleven was a starry affair, Suicide Squad was designed to be similarly A-list.
Approached early were the likes of Ryan Gosling, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Hardy and Jake Gyllenhaal. Warner Bros reasoned that the one thing it could do to separate itself from the MCU was recruit famous faces – rather than one-time unknowns like Chris Hemsworth, or left-of-centre types like Robert Downey Jr and Mark Ruffalo.
Even today the assembled cast is mostly impressive. While the role eyed for Hardy and Gyllenhaal was eventually filled by the spectacularly low-wattage Joel Kinnaman, Robbie, Leto, Will Smith and Viola Davis were all bonafide “gets”.
Margot Robbie Movies You Should Watch
But the starriness of the film’s cast also concealed a fatal problem: no one knew what Suicide Squad actually was. Filmmaker David Ayer, fresh from the critical and commercial hit End of Watch, was forced to bang out his blueprint for the film in just six weeks to meet a production date thrust upon him. It meant the eventual product was an odd creative drought, a project driven by the general premise of the Suicide Squad comic books, but also by various different voices within Warner Bros and DC.
The Suicide Squad themselves are an elite task force of criminals, assembled to carry out particularly dangerous operations. But their movie is also about The Joker, the only A-list character in an ensemble full, for the most part, of nobodies. It’s also part of the same universe as Dawn of Justice, the risible Batman/Superman team-up released six months earlier.
It also acts as a precursor for 2017’s similarly risible Justice League, with cameos from Aquaman and The Flash. There’s also an odd, non-event of a villain – an ancient witch with an army of faceless minions who threatens to end the world. It’s also a movie unnecessarily driven by Will Smith at the expense of much of the rest of the cast.
Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn Return Teased By Dc Director
At least some of the directionlessness of Suicide Squad was Smith’s fault. He was an early recruit, along with Robbie and Leto, but with him came typical Will Smith baggage. A star of staggering renown and power, Smith is also known for taking a hands-on approach to scripts, altering material to better suit his brand and bidding farewell if his requests aren’t met. It’s reportedly why he didn’t star in Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino refusing to accommodate his ideas, and why Hardy dropped out of Suicide Squad.
According to Shia LaBeouf, who claimed he was offered the ultimately miniscule role later played by Scott Eastwood in the film, Smith only agreed to star in Suicide Squad if it was more significantly anchored around him. “The [Eastwood] character was different initially, ” LaBeouf told Variety. “Then Will came in, and the script changed a bit. That character and Tom Hardy’s character got written down to build Will up.”
A feeling of “too many cooks” was visible at every juncture. An undeniably very good trailer, soundtracked to Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, debuted in early 2016 to raves… followed by rumours that the lightness of the preview clip was wildly misrepresentative of Ayer’s actual film.
Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn To Lead Female Centric Dc Comics Movie
Fan sites then claimed that the film was undergoing emergency reshoots to introduce more levity… claims that were quickly decried as “fake news” by Ayer and his cast. “[The idea of] reshoots for humour is silly, ” Ayer tweeted in April 2016, while insisting that the reshoots involved new action sequences, not more laughs. “When a studio loves your movie and asks what else you want, go for it! #ThanksWB #moreaction”
There was also a feeling that the film was emphasising the wrong elements in its pre-publicity. Harley Quinn is one of the most popular characters in modern comic books, and pre-Robbie had never been seen in a live-action film, yet Leto was positioned as the film’s breakout star. Likely unhelped by Leto’s general air of maximilist effort, headlines in the run-up to the film’s release endlessly regurgitated bizarre Joker-related stories from the set – Leto went method, sending Robbie a rat in the mail, Davis a dead pig and Kinnaman anal beads.
“Someone asked me, ‘Did you send him any presents back?’” Kinnaman recalled to Variety. “I’m like, ‘When someone sends you a used condom, I don’t want to play anymore. I don’t like your game, and I don’t want to play.’”
Margot Robbie Wanted Birds Of Prey To Be R Rated Even Before Deadpool Was Released
Ultimately, that Leto’s Joker barely appeared in Suicide Squad, appearing to perish in a plane crash at the film’s midpoint, only emphasised the idea that something had gone awry behind the scenes. Leto later expressed regret about his involvement with the film. He reportedly told fans at a Q&A for his band Thirty Seconds to Mars that he felt he was “tricked” into being in it and had refused to watch the finished cut.
He also claimed that numerous Joker scenes had been axed from the released movie, suggesting to BBC Radio that he “brought so much to the table in every scene that it was probably more about filtering all of the insanity”. Ayer additionally revealed that around 30 minutes of footage was filmed yet left on the cutting room floor. An extended cut of the film, released on DVD and Blu-Ray in December 2016, featured just 13 minutes of deleted footage.
Shortly before the film’s theatrical release, the Hollywood Reporter claimed that millions of dollars had been spent on reshoots (some sites put the figure as high as $22m), with numerous editors brought in to try and fix the film’s tone. In the end two different versions of the film, one lighter and the other more in keeping with Ayer’s original vision, had been tested for preview audiences. The former proved more popular. It was also more reminiscent of the film’s trailer, with loud pops of colour added in post-production and an abundance of pop songs used to patch over the obvious cuts and edits.
The Suicide Squad Star Margot Robbie Weighs In On Lady Gaga Playing Harley Quinn In Joker: Folie A Deux
Ayer was said to have been burned out by the conflict over the finished movie – he reportedly fired his representatives at the Creative Artists Agency, signed with a rival firm and then jumped back to CAA within the space of a few days.
For a while, everyone who wasn’t Leto more or less maintained a brave face. There was also much to celebrate: despite abysmal reviews, Suicide Squad was a box office smash – an even greater victory considering the similarly dismal response in early 2016 to Batman v Superman. But as Warner Bros mulled a sequel, the wheels began to come off.
Ayer’s relationship with his film
0 Response to Margot Robbie Superhero Movie
Posting Komentar