We've known Margot Robbie as an actress to be reckoned with ever since her breakout turn opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street. Since then, she has only proven her talent with her Oscar-nominated performance in I, Tonya and her memorable turn as Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad. But what is perhaps most impressive about her meteoric rise over the past five years has been the projects she has chosen to produce under her LuckyChap banner, and today brings word of a new one -- Barbed Wire Heart.
Robbie and LuckyChap Productions are teaming with Dan Lin and his Rideback banner to produce an adaptation of Tess Sharpe's gritty novel, tapping TV scribe Carly Wray (Westworld, Mad Men) to write the script, though it's unlikely to feature a role for Robbie herself.
Published in March by Grand Central Publishing, Barbed Wire Heart follows Harley McKenna, the daughter of a violent meth dealer who raised her in his image. Not only can she take care of herself, but she also cares for others, running a women's shelter for survivors of abuse. When a rival family (who killed her mother) makes a push into the McKennas' territory, Harley is forced to stand up to them and her father without putting her shelter and its inhabitants in danger.
LuckyChap's Tom Ackerley will also produce alongside Jonathan Eirich of Rideback, whose Nick Reynolds will oversee the project for the company. LuckyChap has history with Wray, who adapted a New York Times Magazine article about female firefighters for the company.
Circling back to those aforementioned producing projects, Robbie is developing an adaptation of Marisa Lankester's memoir Dangerous Odds, a crime drama about sports betting; she's developing Beautiful Things and Augmented with veteran producer Denise DiNovi; she partnered with Donald De Line, Amy Pascal and Rock Shaink to produce the Robin Hood reimagining Marian; and let's not forget that she's a producer on WB/DC's Birds of Prey movie, having been the driving force behind that project, which will see her reprise her role as Harley Quinn. She also recently wrapped Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, in which she plays slain movie star Sharon Tate. She's represented by CAA, Management 360 and Aran Michael Management.
Rideback is currently in post-production on Disney's live-action remake of Aladdin and WB's animated sequel Lego Movie 2: The Second Part. The company is also developing a horror movie based on the viral sensation Dear David for New Line, as Collider first reported.
Wray, who is also writing one of the Game of Thrones spinoff movies, is repped by WME and Grandview. Sharpe is repped by APA, and the Hollywood Reporter broke the news.
