In other words, it’s a lot like Spawn, created by Liefeld’s fellow Image founder Todd McFarlane, but about a mostly naked lady. In fact, Avengelyne exists largely as an excuse for artists to draw mostly naked ladies in various spine-cracking poses while holding a gigantic sword.
Avengalyne in Production Hell
Believe it or not, then, the Avengelyne premise has only proven rich enough to spawn a handful of miniseries, the most recent in 2011. However, this has not stopped Liefeld from trying to expand to movies where apparently a mostly naked lady will be novel enough of a concept to make up for any compelling story or character. In 2012, Hollywood Reporter announced that Liefeld and MMA-fighter-turned-Star-Wars-actor Gina Carano had teamed up to make an Avengelyne film. According to the report, the film would be “in the vein of Underworld, the popular vampire-vs.-werewolves franchise starring Kate Beckinsale.”
Four years later, Deadline reported that Paramount Pictures had secured rights to Avengelyne with Akiva Goldsman attached to write. As the writer of Batman & Robin and I Am Legend, who also won an Academy Award for A Beautiful Mind, Goldsman has a long track record of bringing geek properties to the screen. However, he soon focused his attention on rebooting Star Trek for Paramount with Alex Kutrzman.
While most of those announcements make sense on some level, the latest is a surprise. Yesterday, Deadline reported Olivia Wilde would direct Avengelyne with Margot Robbie attached as the lead. A longtime actor with credits in genre projects such as Tron: Legacy, Wilde drew attention for her directorial debut Booksmart, a fun and sympathetic comedy about overachieving high school girls. Her follow-up Don’t Worry Darling, however, failed to impress, as backstage gossip drew more attention than the film’s Stepford Wives inspired plot.
To be honest, none of the above information sounds like the makings of a good movie. But there is one reason to be optimistic: Margot Robbie.
Robbie Redeems Avengelyne
Early in 2016’s Suicide Squad, the entire movie stops to stare at Harley Quinn. Harley has jut been wheeled out with the film’s other bad guys turned antiheroes, including Deadshot (Will Smith) and Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney). All of the above are then told to get ready for battle. While we do get shots of Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s Killer Croc ripping off his shirt and El Diablo (Jay Hernandez) pulling on a muscle-shirt, no one gets the same attention as Harley Quinn. The camera starts at her feet and takes its time moving up to her face, catching the last few seconds before her shirt covers her bright red bra. The music cuts out as Harley notices everyone staring at her. “What?” she asks, and they all get back to work.
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