Margot Robbie is heading from The Suicide Squad to Wes Anderson's new squad, and yes, I do love everything about this.
The moviegoing public has largely come to associate the Australian actress with the character of Harley Quinn, but I know there's much more to her than that, as evidenced by her nuanced turn as public enemy Tonya Harding in I, Tonya. I don't know when Robbie will next appear in a DC movie, but outside of the DCEU, she has certainly set her sights on working with Hollywood's top directors, from Quentin Tarantino on Once Upon a Time in Hollywood to David O. Russell (untitled period piece) and Damien Chazelle (Babylon). Heck, even her upcoming Barbie movie has Greta Gerwig at the helm! And now Robbie is due to work with Anderson, whose style is wholly unique and practically the antithesis of her work in the DCEU.
The Hollywood Reporter broke the casting news, suggesting that Robbie will be playing a supporting role in Anderson's next movie, which remains without a title. The filmmaker's frequent collaborators Adrien Brody, Bill Murray and Tilda Swinton are set to star in the film, which will also feature an appearance from Tom Hanks. Production is slated to start later this month in Spain, so Robbie will head overseas after wrapping Chazelle's Babylon, which reunites her with Brad Pitt.
Brody, Murray and Swinton all appear in Anderson's upcoming film The French Dispatch, which will finally hit theaters on Oct. 22 follows its world premiere at Cannes. The starry ensemble also includes Oscar winners Frances McDormand and Christoph Waltz as well as Timothée Chalamet, Saoirse Ronan, Owen Wilson, Edward Norton, Jason Schwartzman, Elisabeth Moss, Willem Dafoe, Liev Schreiber and Jeffrey Wright, who seems to be the consensus standout of the bunch.
The Suicide Squad had a rather disappointing opening at the box office last weekend but the film was also released on HBO Max, which certainly cut into its haul. Plus, the delta variant continues to run amok, scaring many people away from communal activities such as moviegoing. Oh, and this new film had to contend with the stink left behind by the original Suicide Squad movie, which couldn't have helped matters even though reviews for James Gunn's sequel have been much, much better. The character of Harley Quinn is deployed wisely, and in this case, less proved to be more, so kudos to Gunn for finding just the right balance there. Robbie is represented by CAA, Management 360 and Aran Michael Management.