Rosie Perez has joined the cast of Birds of Prey, the upcoming female-led DC comic book movie. The project entered development shortly after the release of Suicide Squad. Warner Bros. had an interest in exploring a spin-off featuring Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn and this is the movie that ultimately wound up moving forward. With production set to begin early next year, casting has been ramping up and Perez is just the latest key player to fall into place.
According to a new report, Rosie Perez will play Renee Montoya, a member of the Gotham City Police Department. Montoya, in the world of DC Comics, is openly gay and, during the New 52 run, she took up the mantle of the Question. It’s unclear if Perez will be suiting up as the Question in Birds of Prey, but she represents another female heroine set to take center stage in the upcoming comic book adaptation, which will be the next DC project to begin filming. Many had suspected that Suicide Squad 2 would enter production first, but Warner Bros. decided to go with this instead for the time being.
Starting with her breakout role in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, Rosie Perez has had a prolific and varied career in Hollywood. She went on to star alongside Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes in Ron Shelton’s basketball flick White Men Can’t Jump and later moved on to star in Peter Weir’s Fearless, which earned her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. In recent years, she’s starred in TBS’s Search Party, NBC’s Rise and Disney’s Elena of Avalor. This is quite easily her most high-profile role in some time.
Rosie Perez joins the recently cast Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who will play Huntress, and Jurnee Smollett-Bell, who has been tapped to play Black Canary. They will be teaming up with Harley Quinn in order to take down a villain in Gotham City, expected to be Black Mask. While official plot details are currently being kept under wraps by the studio, it’s been reported that this version of Gotham City will not be protected by Batman, which has raised some questions as to why that might be, since it takes place in the same universe occupied by Ben Affleck’s version of the Caped Crusader.
Cathy Yan has been tapped to direct Birds of Prey, who is known best for her movie Dead Pigs. Christina Hodson, who penned the upcoming Transformers spin-off Bumblebee and is currently working on the Batgirl movie, wrote the screenplay. Warner Bros. is expected to get cameras rolling early next year and will release Birds of Prey in theaters on February 7, 2020. We’ll be sure to keep you up to date as more details on the project are made available. At the present time, it’s the only DC movie dated for 2020. Shazam, Joker and Wonder Woman 1984 are slated for release in 2019. This news was first reported by The Wrap.
