Margot Robbie’s Birds of Prey movie will feature a familiar Batman location.
The DC Extended Universe has leaned on Batman lore pretty hard. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad and Justice League have all used locations from Batman’s history. Whether it be ACE Chemicals or Arkham Asylum, Batman has become the pin that holds all these films together.
Birds of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation Of One Harley Quinn) will also use a major location from Batman lore: Amusement Mile. While we were on set of Birds of Prey back in March, Production Designer K.K Barrett revealed that the iconic Batman location would appear in the film. Here’s the full interview with both K.K. Barrett and Birds of Prey Costume Designer Erin Benach:
K. K. Barrett: When I approached this film I just wanted to do something different. I wanted to kind of blow up whatever my preconception was of a comic book character or ‘heroes world’ and make it pop yet dirty because I felt like those were the streets that Harley tread through untouched. She can kind of go anywhere. She can go high, she can go low. Nothing affects her and she comes through unscathed. I’m not telling you what happens in the story — I’m just saying that’s how I think she approaches life. So, I wanted the locations and the worlds she’s in and that Roman’s in to be bold and a little sassy around the edges, leaving a mark both in our psyche and representing what goes on inside their heads. This is really what goes on inside their brain rather than something that they put on as an affectation, but they’re both ‘out’ characters. They’re both wide open, so it’s their inside out.
K. K. Barrett: Roman’s club is bold both in color and in style. Harley’s apartment is the same in her own way. That’s kind of her dog house where she retreats to. This is from Roman’s apartment. He’s a collector of people and things. He doesn’t always know what to do with them, but he knows he needs to possess and try to control. That includes cultures… possessing other people’s culture. And then there’s the fun house. The world of Amusement Mile, which I guess is in the lore of some of these characters. Again, I wanted to kind of tip it on its head and do something not so gothic as maybe the world it’s predisposed to but bring it up into a couple different decades and mash em together. The film isn’t in any time… it’s in the story time that it exists in by itself. Like the characters being in their own heads… the world the story takes places over could be many different decades… it’s not any singular time. There’s nothing that adheres it to now or to then. It could be a story that’s told and made up, as these are, and there’s a little bit of fiction and lies going on so you can’t really trust what you see.
Q: When Margot Robbie posted the first look photo she had the dog tag that said “Bruce” on it and people were going nuts about that. Is that in the film or was that sort of a mood thing for the camera test?
A: She has a pet hyena who’s named Bruce. That’s her pal… her bud. She has tamed an unusual pet.
Q: Is Bruce named after anyone specific?
A: We’ll save that surprise for later.
Q: Is that one of the Joker’s hyenas? Because I know in the comics he always has hyenas.
A: No. Totally separate and you’ll see in the movie.
Q: For the comic book characters… did you go to them for inspiration first and then kind of do your own take on them after that?
A: Yeah, I think it was a combination of allowing myself to look at it and then also sort of keeping myself away because I really want to create something new but inspired by [the comics]. We started with those characters and all their looks and I was able to kind of see what had been done over the different versions of the comics over the years. I think we took more of the backstory and the personality from there and then used the world that we were creating with Gotham to actually create the costumes.
KK: Harley is a relatively new character in terms of comic book lore and how long she’s been around. Her world and looks are constantly being redefined. It’s not so ingrained and I felt like we had a lot of license to make up things as if this is an episode we haven’t seen before that doesn’t adhere to other things, so this was very freeing in that way.
Q: We know this isn’t connected to other movies per se, but looking around this room there aredefinitely things that seem to reference other characters like there’s something that looks like a Batman there. Can you talk about that in your designs?
KK: I don’t have any reference to anything. I refused to go into the lore and I wanted to start fresh like ‘this is a new day, this is another episode.’ I didn’t really need to. There may be crumbs that people may find, but that wasn’t the objective.
What do you think of Birds of Prey using Amusement Mile? Are you excited to see this Batman location used in the movie? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
Here is the official synopsis for Birds of Prey:
“You ever hear the one about the cop, the songbird, the psycho and the mafia princess? Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) is a twisted tale told by Harley herself, as only Harley can tell it. When Gotham’s most nefariously narcissistic villain, Roman Sionis, and his zealous right-hand, Zsasz, put a target on a young girl named Cass, the city is turned upside down looking for her. Harley, Huntress, Black Canary and Renee Montoya’s paths collide, and the unlikely foursome have no choice but to team up to take Roman down.”
Directed by Cathy Yan from a script penned by Bumblebee writer Christina Hodson, Birds of Prey stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Huntress, Jurnee Smollett-Bell as Black Canary, Ella Jay Basco as Cassandra Cain, Rosie Perez as Renee Montoya, Chris Messina as Victor Zsasz, Ewan McGregor as Black Mask, and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. Ali Wong, Robert Catrini, and Michael Masini have also been cast in undisclosed roles.
Birds of Prey will be released in theaters on February 7, 2020. Stay tuned for more updates on Birds of Prey, Batman and the future of the DC Extended Universe.
