Screenwriter Christina Hodson sat down with The LA Times to talk about her upcoming projects, the Birds of Prey movie set to begin production soon and the Batgirl film she is currently writing.
Batgirl
When pressed for details, she couldn’t reveal anything in terms of plot (“Basically nothing”), being in the early stages, but did share what drew her to the character.
“I’m really excited — because she’s Batgirl! She’s all the things I love about Batman. I’ve always been more interested in humans than supernatural things and monsters. People are capable of profound good, but also profound evil. The things that people will do when you back them into a corner are amazing, terrifying, and wonderful at the same time, and it draws out these primal things in us — good and bad. And that, to me, is so fascinating.”
Batgirl hasn’t been seen in live-action on the big screen since Alicia Silverstone played her in Batman & Robin. The character briefly appeared on The WB’s Birds of Prey television series in flashbacks. However, Barbara Gordon did appear as Oracle throughout the series. In that version Babs was played by Dina Meyer. The show, produced by Altered Carbon’s Laeta Kalogridis, lasted one season.
Birds of Prey
Birds of Prey, which will feature Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn and the villainous mobster Black Mask, rolls into production in January. Robbie also serves as producer and is working closely with Hodson on the script. It started coming together when director Cathy Yan came aboard because she liked the dark humor and theme of female empowerment Hodson put into her script.
Growing up on big-budget action pictures in the era of VHS, Hodson wanted to combine what she was seeing on screen with what she wasn’t seeing.
“When I grew up and I was watching all of these Hollywood movies, all of the heroes were straight white men — always. I wanted to be the archaeologist digging up the big thing running away from the boulder. I wanted to have those big adventures and I never got to see it. Certainly as a mixed-race kid, I never got to see it… so I can’t help but want to fix that. I can’t help but want all of my leads to be female.”
Hodson stated to The Times her favorite film of all time is Terminator 2: Judgement Day, a film acclaimed for its groundbreakingly tough and complicated female lead in Sarah Connor. She also mused she wishes she could’ve written that film, so it’s a strong possibility Hodson has that dream and Linda Hamilton’s performance in mind as she pens her screenplay, taking Barbara in a similar direction.
Christina Hodson got the gig writing Batgirl last April after she replaced Joss Whedon. Hodson’s next film will be the Transformers spin-off Bumblebee.
What do you make of Hodson’s comments regarding Batgirl? What about her approach to Birds of Prey?