Warner Brothers’ ‘Batgirl’ movie is back in the works. Joss Whedon had originally approached WB about making a movie about this long-lasting member of the Batman family, who is also the daughter of Commissioner Gordon (played by J.K. Simmons). But after struggling for almost a year, Whedon announced in February that he had been unable to come up with a story idea. Since Whedon had been the one to get the ball rolling, there was some doubt that ‘Batgirl’ would ever actually get made, especially after the weak performance of other WB DC Comics movies and the fact that the ‘Batman’ project seems stalled in development hell.
But the project is back in the works, with Christina Hodson tackling the script. Hodson wrote the screenplay for the upcoming ‘Transformers’ spinoff ‘Bumblebee’, which is due in theaters on December 21, 2018, and stars Hailee Steinfeld and John Cena. Intriguingly, in December, Steinfeld expressed a desire to play Batgirl. Could Hodson’s involvement give her a yellow-booted foot in the door?
Hodson worked on a ‘Birds of Prey’ movie which would have featured Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn and maybe Batgirl. The status of this project is unknown. It is believed that David Ayer (‘Suicide Squad’) would have directed. (And may still…)
Hodson also crafted the scripts for the thrillers ‘Shut In’ (2016, starring Charlize Theron, Oliver Platt and Jacob Tremblay) and ‘Unforgettable’ (2017, starring Rosario Dawson, Katherine Heigle and Geoff Stultz). She also contributed to the writers’ rooms for a couple of notable brands including ‘Transformers’, which led to her job on ‘Bumblebee’ and Paramount’s ‘Ology’ based on Dugald Speer’s fictional encyclopedias.
The character Batgirl was created to goose sagging ratings for the 1960s ‘Batman’ series. Yvonne Craig played the high-kicking crime fighter who worked as a librarian in her secret identity. Alicia Silverstone played an altered version of the character in the universally reviled 1997 movie ‘Batman & Robin’. Last year, Rosario Dawson voiced the character in ‘The LEGO Batman Movie’ and another animated version of her appears in the current hit ‘Ready Player One’.
Obviously, with a writer just announced, there is no concrete plan for when this movie may actually be released, but check back for updates as they are released!
Source: The Hollywood Reporter