
Batgirl Film To Be Directed By Bad Boys For Life Filmmakers
Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, the duo behind 2020 hit Bad Boys for Life, have closed a deal to steer Warner Bros.’ DC feature centering on Barbra Gordon, the daughter of Gotham City police commissioner James Gordon.
Christina Hodson, who wrote Bumblebee and is in the Warners fold with her screenwriting on Birds of Prey and The Flash, penned the script for what is being planned as a movie for HBO Max.
Kristin Burr, who is gearing up for the release of Cruella this month, is the producer.
Barbra Gordon is the most established version of the Batgirl character, who was initially introduced in 1961 as Betty Kane.
However, the character was revamped in 1967 when television executives wanted to attract a female audience to the Batman TV series, then faltering in its third season.
Yvonne Craig played the character whose last live-action big-screen appearance was with Alicia Silverstone in Joel Schumacher’s 1997 movie Batman & Robin.
The project previously had Joss Whedon on board as writer and director. Whedon came on in March 2017 but left in April 2018, at the time saying he failed at cracking the story.
Burr said:
With Batgirl, we hope to take the audience on a fun ride and see a different side of Gotham. Christina’s script is crackling with spirit. Adil and Bilall have an excited and joyous energy, which is infectious, making them the perfect filmmakers for this Bat project. And I’m just psyched I get to be part of the DC universe, which is super cool.
El Arbi and Fallah were born in Morocco and studied film in Belgium. They cut their teeth with European thrillers and directing episodes of FX crime drama Snowfall but gained attention when they helmed the third Bad Boys movie.
Off the strength of Bad Boys, they trampolined to co-showrunners of Marvel series Ms. Marvel, where they also directed the premiere and finale episodes, the latter which wrapped a few weeks ago according to THR.