As has become common nowadays with blockbuster movies, Birds of Prey, the next DC Extended Universe movie, is heading back for reshoots, four months after principal photography wrapped. This time around, though, the production will be getting some help from John Wick director Chad Stahelski on the action side of things, which is the man’s bread and butter.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Chad Stahelski will oversee the second unit photography on Birds of Prey, fully known as Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). This will see him tackling and designing new action scenes and working closely with director Cathy Yan, who is making her big studio debut with this DC movie.
Although this marks Chad Stahelski taking on a direct role for Birds of Prey (for which he will be uncredited), his stunt firm, 87 Eleven, has been involved with the movie since production began at the beginning of the year. It’s unclear exactly how long Birds of Prey’s reshoot period will last, but considering Stahelski’s extensive resume when it comes to plotting out action in the cinematic realm, he’ll be a valuable asset to the team.
After spending years as a stuntman (including serving as Keanu Reeves’ stunt double on The Matrix), stunt coordinator and second unit director, Chad Stahelski made his feature filmmaking debut with 2014’s John Wick, which he co-directed with David Leitch (who was credited as a producer). While Leitch went on to direct Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2 and Hobbs & Shaw, Stahelski remained with the John Wick film series, and both Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 - Parabellum both performed well critically and commercially.
Birds of Prey serves as a spinoff to 2016’s Suicide Squad, which ended with Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn being broken out of prison by her Mistah J, i.e. The Joker. Robbie is reprising Harley in Birds of Prey, but when we reunite with her, she’ll have left the Clown Prince of Crime and began a new chapter of her life.
Set in a Gotham City that’s no longer being protected by Batman, Birds of Prey seems Harley Quinn teaming up with Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and Detective Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez) to protect a young Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco), who has stolen a diamond belong to crime lord Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor), better known to DC fans as Black Mask.
Christina Hodson wrote the Birds of Prey script and is keeping her DCEU streak going by penning the upcoming Batgirl. The original Birds of Prey shoot unfolded from January to April in Los Angeles under the working title Fox Force Five (nice Pulp Fiction nod). It remains to be seen if Birds of Prey will indeed be the first theatrically released R-rated DCEU movie.
Birds of Prey opens in theaters on February 7, 2020. If you’re curious about what other DCEU movies are on the way, look through our comprehensive guide.
