Nicolas Winding Refn has historically turned down offers for notable Hollywood films, but if he got the shot to do a DC movie, “I would love to do Batgirl” he tells Deadline. DC Studio chiefs, James Gunn and Peter Safran, take note.
“Because Wonder Woman is done, that one I thought was super heavy,” says Refn.
But Batgirl may be hard: soon after the current Warner Bros motion picture administration arrived, they shelved an unfinished cut of the movie in August 2022 from filmmakers Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah which was destined for streaming service HBO Max; this was much to the upset of the filmmakers. The movie, had it been released, would have reportedly spoiled a storyline that was being played out Andy Muschietti’s 2023 movie The Flash. The David Zaslav run Warner Bros Discovery took a tax writedown on the $70M+ production.
Why Batgirl? Refn says “The costumes, I love the aesthetics. A lot of Her Private Hell is my obsession with dolls, objects and how to move people around in space and time. I loved the objectification of objects, and superheroes and comic-books and that whole sub-culture. It’s where I come from. I collect Japanese toys, I play with Legos…”
However, Refn, prefers to be original. “I don’t know if I’ll make an actual IP,” not to mention, like Elia Kazan, a director he always looked up to; the Copenhagen, Denmark native has always preferred to make movies his way.
But if Refn had a crack at Spider-Man, what would it be like?
Quips Her Private Hell star Rose Havana Liu, “the slowest swing.”
Refn’s Her Private Hell makes its world premiere out of competition at the Grand Theatre Lumiere tonight in Cannes. The Neon theatrical release comes out July 24.
The Deadline Studio at Cannes is sponsored by SCAD.
