Moviefone Editorial

Tag: david-ayer

  • Box Office: ‘Suicide Squad’ Smashes Records With $135.1M Weekend

    Suicide Squad box officeBy Brent Lang

    LOS ANGELES, Aug 7 (Variety.com) – “Suicide Squad” smashed records, scoring a colossal $135.1 million debut despite suffering some of the worst reviews of the year.

    That sets a new high-water mark for an August launch, lapping “Guardians of the Galaxy’s” $94.3 million bow. It also ranks as a new personal best for star Will Smith, trumping “I Am Legend’s” $77.2 million debut in 2007.

    The action spectacle is also resonating with foreign crowds. “Suicide Squad” earned $132 million overseas from 57 territories, bringing its global total to more than $267 million.

    “It bested anything that we could have expected,” said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros. distribution executive vice president. “The marketing campaign was brilliant and the performances by the cast, starting with Will Smith, Margot Robbie, and Jared Leto were just extraordinary. They’re fun and wicked and fans enjoy it.”

    “Suicide Squad” has been one of the most hotly anticipated films of the summer. Buzz on the film has built steadily since Warner Bros. released a teaser trailer at last year’s Comic-Con that highlighted Jared Leto’s grill-sporting Joker and Margot Robbie looking demented in pigtails as Harley Quinn. However, the studio was caught off guard by the fusillade of withering reviews and their were concerns that the poor reception would dampen the opening numbers.

    And boy were those reviews awful. The Wall Street Journal’s Joe Morgenstern called the film “…an all-out attack on the whole idea of entertainment,” New York’s David Edelstein branded it “the worst of the worst,” and MTV’s Amy Nicholson dismissed the picture as “two hours of padding.”

    Audiences appeared to like the film better than critics, handing the film a B+ CinemaScore. Younger consumers appear to like the film better than older moviegoers, with audiences under the age of 18 giving it an A rating. The question is will “Suicide Squad” show some endurance?

    “There’s a major disconnect with between what the critics are saying and what audiences are seeing,” said Goldstein.

    “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” the previous entry in DC Comic’s series of interconnected superhero films, was also a critical pinata. It managed to overcome the bad notices to debut to $166 million, but the poor word-of-mouth caught up to the film in its second weekend, pushing receipts down by nearly 70%.

    There are signs the hostile reviews are already hobbling “Suicide Squad.” The film dropped sharply on Saturday, falling 41% from its Friday numbers, although it should be said that those grosses include Thursday pre-show results.

    The studio has a lot riding on “Suicide Squad.” It spent $175 million making the picture, including tens of millions on reshoots. But the cost isn’t the only concern. DC is struggling to generate the same level of excitement for its stable of Batman, Superman, and other Justice League fixtures that Marvel has managed to stoke for its movies about costumed avengers. It needs more of its films to be beloved as well as financially successful.

    Production on the film was reportedly rushed with writer and director David Ayer having less than two months to turn a script around. The film centers on a team of super villains who are recruited for a black ops mission by the U.S. government.

    Men accounted for 54% of “Suicide Squad’s” opening weekend audience, with more than half of the audience clocking in under the age of 25. Warner Bros. released the film across 4,255 locations. IMAX accounted for 381 of those venues, and the big screen company comprised $11 million of the first weekend gross.

    The weekend’s other new release, EuropaCorp’s “Nine Lives,” died a quick death. The story of a ruthless executive (Kevin Spacey) who gets transformed into a cat, coughed up $6.5 million, and managed to score even worse reviews than “Suicide Squad.” Spacey barely promoted the movie, which was the brainchild of former EuropaCorp CEO Christophe Lambert, who originally envisioned the film as a high-concept comedy before repositioning it as a family film. Ousted from the company last February, Lambert died of lung cancer in May. He was 51 years old. “Nine Lives” cost just over $30 million to make.

    Last weekend’s champ, Universal’s “Jason Bourne,” dropped 62% in its second frame, topping out at $22 million. That was strong enough for a second place finish and brings the spy sequels domestic haul to $103.4 million.

    STX Entertainment’s “Bad Moms” snagged third place in its second weekend, picking up $14.2 million. The raunchy comedy about a group of mothers who rebel against pressures to be perfect parents has made $51 million since opening, a healthy return on its $20 million budget. Universal’s “The Secret Life of Pets” nabbed fourth place with $11.6 million. The family comedy is one of the year’s biggest hits, having made $319.6 million during its run. Paramount’s “Star Trek Beyond” rounded out the top five, earning $10.2 million to push its stateside gross to $127.9 million after three weeks.

  • Stan Lee and Marvel Comics Are Cool With David Ayer Saying ‘F–k Marvel’

    The IMDb Yacht Party At San Diego Comic-Con 2016, Presented By TCL“Suicide Squad” director David Ayer ruffled some feathers earlier this week when he shouted “F–k Marvel!” at the flick’s premiere. Ayer quickly apologized, but Marvel fans didn’t take the slight too kindly, leading several prominent names in the Marvel-verse to come to his defense.

    One was none other than Marvel legend Stan Lee, the co-creator of countless iconic characters like Iron Man, Spider-Man, the Hulk, Thor, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four. Lee, who at 93 is still quite active on social media and has his own YouTube channel, took to Twitter to respond to Ayer, telling the director, “Don’t feel too bad about dropping the f bomb. It’s a compliment of the highest order!”

    The comic legend then linked to a video he made back in 2012, where he discussed what it actually means to say “f–k you” to someone, and how inciting such a passionate response — regardless of the context of that response — is something all artists should hope for.

    “It’s the most exotic, exquisite experience you can have,” Lee says in the video. “If somebody says ‘F you’ to me, I feel like saying, ‘Thank you. Thank you for wishing such a wonderful thing to me.’”

    Another high-profile defender of Ayer’s was Joe Quesada, the chief creative officer of Marvel Entertainment, who also sent the director a tweet of support.

    Ayer later responded to Quesada’s tweet, thanking him for his kindness.

    “Funny how you can talk your face off for 2 weeks and just 2 words can bite back so hard!” Ayer added. “I love the passion out there.”

    With all the nasty “Suicide Squad” reviews that have been released this week (and the equally-nasty fan response to those reviews), we expect even more passion in the coming days. Fans will get to see what the fuss is all about themselves when “Suicide Squad” finally hits theaters on Friday.

    [via: Stan Lee, Joe Quesada]

    Photo credit: Getty Images for IMDb'Suicide Squad' (2016) Official Trailer #2

  • Report on ‘Suicide Squad’ Behind-the-Scenes Drama May Explain What Went Wrong

    Poor “Suicide Squad.” It hasn’t even been released to the public yet. When it does, it’s expected to make a lot of money. But the early reviews have been very unkind, and now The Hollywood Reporter has a behind-the-scenes report on the difficult, pressure-filled making of David Ayer‘s DC film.

    Here are some takeaways from the piece:

    • “[Warner Bros.] chief Kevin Tsujihara announced the project in October 2014 as part of a slate of 10 DC films stretching into 2020. Though the studio believed there was enough time to get the movie done, a source with ties to the project says it was a sprint from the start. ‘[Ayer] wrote the script in like, six weeks, and they just went,’ he says, arguing that the whole process would have benefited if Ayer, 48, had been given more time to work.”

    • “A source with knowledge of events says Warners executives, nervous from the start, grew more anxious after they were blindsided and deeply rattled by the tepid response to BvS. ‘Kevin was really pissed about damage to the brand,’ says one executive close to the studio. A key concern for Warners executives was that ‘Suicide Squad’ didn’t deliver on the fun, edgy tone promised in the strong teaser trailer for the film. So while Ayer pursued his original vision, Warners set about working on a different cut, with an assist from Trailer Park, the company that had made the teaser.”

    • “By the time the film was done, multiple editors had been brought into the process, though only John Gilroy is credited. (A source says he left by the end of the process and that the final editor was Michael Tronick.)”

    • “In May, Ayer’s more somber version and a lighter, studio-favored version were tested with audiences in Northern California. […] Those associated with the film insist Ayer agreed to and participated in the process. Once feedback on the two versions was analyzed, it became clear it was possible to get to ‘a very common-ground place.’ (The studio-favored version with more characters introduced early in the film and jazzed-up graphics won.)”

    • “Other sources describe a fraught process — one cites ‘a lot of panic and ego instead of calmly addressing the tonal issue.’ Clearly all wasn’t sitting right with Ayer, who in June suddenly dropped his longtime agent at CAA and defected to WME, though the agency won him back in a day. ‘He was under a lot — a lot — of pressure,’ says one person with knowledge of the situation, arguing that Ayer was exhausted and needed time to process conflicting ideas.”

    Check out the full report.

    David Ayer and Warner Bros. production president Greg Silverman shared a joint statement with THR: “This was an amazing experience. We did a lot of experimentation and collaboration along the way. But we are both very proud of the result. This is a David Ayer film, and Warners is proud to present it.”

    Ayer also tweeted defense of the film, and DC fans who haven’t even seen the film yet are defending it and blasting critics for a perceived anti-DC bias.

    However, even some “fresh” reviews on Rotten Tomatoes are calling the film “messy” and a “semi-delightful mess.” As Collider put it, when discussing THR’s behind-the-scenes report, “[R]eviews calling the film a ‘mess’ are spot-on. Part of that comes from the atrocious editing that drops in scenes seemingly at random with no consideration of how the story flows or tonal consistency. Now we might know why the film is all over the place.”

    “Suicide Squad” opens in the U.S. this Friday, August 5.

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  • David Ayer Defends ‘Suicide Squad,’ Angry DC Fans Protest Bad Reviews

    Celebrities On The Set Of Univision's "Despierta America"Ouch. “Suicide Squad” director David Ayer may regret saying “F–k Marvel” but he’d probably double-down on a chorus of “F–k the critics.”

    DC and Warner Bros. had rough treatment from critics with “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” but the trailers for “Suicide Squad” looked great, and the film seemed poised to be a hit with both fans and reviewers. Well, there’s still hope for the fans — and definitely for a blockbuster run at the box office — but the early reviews have been bad. Really bad. As of Wednesday morning, after 72 reviews, “Suicide Squad” only has a 33 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

    This has done nothing to help heal the fandom’s DC v Marvel war, and DC fans think it’s more evidence of critics’s pro-Marvel bias. In fact, there’s even a petition to shut down Rotten Tomatoes due to the bad DC reviews.

    That may be the new definition of butthurt. But it does have more than 10,600 supporters at this point. Better to petition that movie critics be made the villains of the next DC film.

    Director David Ayer, who did apologize for saying “F–k Marvel” at his film’s premiere, took to Twitter after the bad reviews started pouring in:


    That quote translates to “I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees.” He’s standing by the film, whether anyone else is or not. And hey, “Wonder Woman” is next, and that one looks great … right?

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  • David Ayer Apologizes for Shouting ‘F–k Marvel’ at ‘Suicide Squad’ Premiere

    "Suicide Squad" World Premiere - Inside ArrivalsIt’s no secret that the eternal war between comic rivals Marvel and DC is an intense one, and things got a bit heated last night at the premiere of “Suicide Squad,” DC’s latest foray into its own cinematic universe. And just like the rough-around-the-edges villains that the flick features, director David Ayer perhaps took things a step too far when he spoke his mind at the film’s premiere in New York City on Monday night.

    Before the screening, Ayer and his cast — including Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, Viola Davis, Jay Hernandez, Jai Courtney, Karen Fukuhara, Cara Delevingne, Scott Eastwood, David Harbour, Adam Beach, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Jim Parrack, and Ike Barinholtz — took the stage to the delighted screams of fans in attendance. The group fired up the crowd by leading a chant, and Ayer himself got in on the fun, repeating one particular phrase heard from the crowd that was sure to ruffle a few feathers: “F–k Marvel!”

    Them’s fighting words, and Ayer apparently realized that not too long after he said it, quickly taking to social media to apologize for the remark.

    “Sorry about getting caught up in the moment and saying f*ck Marvel,” Ayer wrote on Twitter late on Monday night. “Someone said it. I echoed. Not cool. Respect for my brother filmmakers.”

    Marvel is still the undisputed king of the box office when it comes to comparing the comic powerhouses on the big screen, though that may change with “Squad,” which is already anticipated to have a majorly huge, record-breaking opening weekend (and perhaps unseat a little Marvel summer hit called “Guardians of the Galaxy”). We’ll have to wait until next Monday to see who reigns supreme in this current battle.

    [via: The Hollywood Reporter, David Ayer]

    Photo credit: Getty Images

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  • ‘Suicide Squad’ Director Shoots Down ‘Ridiculous Rumor’ About the Joker

    It’s time to scratch one theory off the Jared Leto Joker list.

    “Suicide Squad” opens next Friday, August 5, and the cast and director are busy promoting the DC film. Chris Van Vliet from WSVN-TV in Miami talked to David Ayer about the massive fan speculation when each bit of intel about the movie came out.

    Chris Van Vliet: “What was the most ridiculous rumor that you heard while you were making the movie?”

    David Ayer: “That the Joker is Jason Todd.”

    Van Vliet: “Really?”

    Ayer, looking right into the camera: “It ain’t the case. He’s not.”

    There you have it. He brought it up himself. The theory was that Jared Leto’s Joker was actually Batman’s former Robin, Jason Todd, who was killed by the Joker and returned as the Red Hood. As Collider noted, “This is comics lore, and Todd recently popped up in the video game ‘Batman: Arkham Knight,’ so fans took this and ran with it, assuming that Leto’s character would have an intense connection to Ben Affleck’s Batman.”

    But never mind all that.

    The reporter also mentioned that the marketing for “Suicide Squad” has focused a lot on the Joker and Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, then asked Ayer for his take on the real central character or couple of characters. Ayer answered, “It’s really Deadshot’s [Will Smith] movie in a lot of ways, but it’s also Diablo’s [Jay Hernandez], but it’s also Harley Quinn’s. So there’s a story for everybody. Everybody has a story. I think Will really carries a lot of it because he’s kind of at the emotional heart.”

    So despite Will Smith really not seeming like a huge part of the marketing, he is the heart of the movie. Smith talks about that in the video below, too. When you have 11 minutes to spare, watch it all. There’s a lot of good stuff in here:
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  • ‘Suicide Squad’: 36 Things We Learned on the Set of DC’s Next Blockbuster

    If guarding secrets were a superpower, the stars of the DC’s Extended Universe would be among the world’s greatest champions.

    “Suicide Squad” hits theaters August 5, but in spite of its massive ensemble cast (an apparently tight-lipped bunch) and the fact that the release date is just weeks away, maddeningly little is known about the film or its plot. (The anticipation is enough to drive comic book movie fans to Joker-level insanity.)

    Fortunately, Moviefone was able to peek behind the curtain to find out some of the Skwad’s most closely guarded secrets. In June 2015, we joined a small group of reporters to tour the film’s Toronto set, where we caught up with director David Ayer and stars Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn), Joel Kinnaman (Rick Flag), Jay Hernandez (El Diablo), Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Killer Croc), and Karen Fukuhara (Katana). While plenty of topics were off limits (you’ll have to wait to see how A.R.G.U.S. plays into the plot come August), we got plenty of inside scoop on the film nonetheless. Keep reading for 36 things we learned from the set of this summer’s most-anticipated film.

    From David Ayer:1. “Pretty much everything that happens [in ‘Suicide Squad’] is true to the source material,” Ayer said, though he declined to specify whether the source material is John Ostrander’s original iteration of the Suicide Squad, the New 52, or other Joker comics. “I wanted to do sort of an amalgamation [of various source materials],” he added.

    2. Not every member of the Suicide Squad has equal screen time, but the film is “an ensemble movie to a degree,” said Ayer. “Everybody has their moment. Everybody has their day. Everybody has their story.” Added the director, “It’s an incredibly complex story with flashbacks and different convergent storylines and things like that. … What I’m trying to do is have each character have their own trajectory and their own history and their own heart and their own need.”

    3. Jared Leto‘s Joker may be getting the most press, but “Suicide Squad” is really all about Will Smith’s Deadshot. “It’s really Will’s movie in a lot of ways,” said Ayer. “I kind of built it around him and his journey. His character’s journey is a fantastic way to move the audience through this.”

    4. Enchantress plays a major (and majorly mysterious!) role in “Suicide Squad.” “She leaves a large shadow across the scope of this film,” said Ayer, who strived to be “intentionally vague” while discussing Cara Delevingne‘s alter ego. “She evolves over the course of [the film],” he added. “If you look at her origin, she emerges from this cavern, this cave … Her storyline and her evolution as a character figure very importantly into this construct.” Concluded the director: “I don’t want to get more into her.”

    5. Batman is “freaking scary” in the new movie.
    “All the Batman movies have been from Batman’s point of view. He’s the good guy. He’s the hero of his own movie in all the movies we’ve seen,” explained Ayer. “If you look at what Bruce Wayne has done in creating the Batman persona, his idea was to terrorize criminals. It’s sort of psychological warfare against criminals: this wraith that comes in the night and attacks and culls criminals from society. For the first time, we’re seeing Batman from the point of view of the criminals — and he’s freaking scary.”

    6. Ayer fought to include Batman in “Suicide Squad.” “It’s like, ‘Come on, let me get the toys, please. Let me get the cool stuff,’” explained the director of his desire to include the DC hero in his film. “I begged for that. That was really, really something I wanted.”

    7. Ayer “absolutely” isolated Jared Leto from his “Suicide Squad” co-stars. “There’s always a bit of social engineering that happens [as a director],” Ayer said. “I treat every actor differently according to their needs. When [Jared] shows up, he’s very much kept in isolation. Then he shows up and you really feel the energy change. He’s scary. He’s a scary dude. He’s in character. He’s knocking it out of the park. He’ll make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. What he’s doing is really powerful.”

    8. Jared Leto and The Joker are not entirely dissimilar. “He understands how to drive a crowd,” Ayer said of how the Thirty Seconds to Mars frontman is like his on-screen alter ego. “This guy isn’t an introvert. This is an extroverted Joker. This is a Joker who really puts himself out in the world and is very socially adept and uses his presence. Jared is definitely drafting on his own abilities in that regard.”
    9. Jared Leto’s Joker could be the most iconic iteration of the character yet. “I think people are going to be surprised, because even though there’s some new visual elements to the Joker, when you see him on screen in aggregate as a character, I think it’s going to be hard for anyone to ever imagine anyone else as the Joker,” said Ayer, who acknowledged that the late Heath Ledger’s version of the supervillain “is in a Pantheon.”

    Still, “that shouldn’t preclude reinvention,” said the director. “[The Joker is] the most iconic bad guy in any media. … We came at it with an incredible respect for the history of The Joker. I’ve read every freaking comic. I grew up on the ‘Batman TV’ show, the Adam West TV show. Look at the incarnation of The Joker in that and how he has evolved. I don’t think we should freeze him in ice and never let him evolve with us as we evolve as an audience.”

    10. Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn is “freaking scary” too! “I’m kind of glad she’s in stiletto heels because if she was in anything else, she would be even more scary,” said Ayer, who referred to the villainess’ tendency to use her attractiveness and sexuality as a weapon to disarm people as “visual judo to get what she wants.” Added the director, “There’s an intrinsic sort of wink and awareness that that’s part of her game.”

    11. Ayer “cherry picked” El Diablo from the New 52 for the film. “There really haven’t been too many opportunities for a Hispanic kind of villain/superhero comic book character, and he plays pretty important into this,” the director explained of Jay Hernandez’s alter ego. “That’s something that’s important to me, so I kind of cherry picked him to pull him into this.”

    12. There’s a reason why the female members of the Suicide Squad are so scantly clad. “If you look at the aesthetic of comic books … you have these hyper-masculine men and these very feminine women,” said Ayer. “I don’t think that it’s a contradiction to say that a woman can be traditionally attractive and feminine and [also] very strong and very Type-A and very aggressive. I think that’s something you build into the characters and I think it’s a trope for the genre.”

    13. Ayer’s Navy background prepared him for the secrecy of the DCEU. “I had a security clearance, so ‘been there, done that’ as far as dealing with classified material,” said the director. “There are actually mechanisms in place. Nobody gets a hard copy of the script. Everybody works online. Everything’s tracked. Everything’s coordinated. It’s a little rough just from the work-a-day sense because you can’t have a bunch of paper stacked on your desk, but at the same time, I think it’s valuable.”

    From Margot Robbie:14. The Joker and Harley Quinn have a codependent relationship. “It’s like a compulsion — like the way an alcoholic is compelled and needs to have a drink,” said Robbie of her alter ego’s affection for Jared Leto’s supervillain. “It’s an actual psychological problem, which codependency actually is in really severe cases.”

    15. Robbie used the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory test, which psychologists use to diagnose mental illness, to help her understand The Joker.

    “[Jared Leto] is a method actor, so he’s in character all the time. And because he’s got his facade up all the time, it was really hard for me to get through to him at first,” said Robbie. “So I was like, ‘OK, I really gotta take this as if I am trying to crack The Joker,’ and ended up looking into the MMPI testings. … So I spent a lot of time reading those, and then whenever we had time to rehearse or improvise, I’d just start with those questions — some of them are basic and some of them are not — and see which ones would catch him off guard and see how he’d react. Then I’d be like, ‘OK, so I’m gonna go for this tact now.’ It was just a lot of trial and error.”
    16. The scenes between Harley Quinn and The Joker are going to be “next level,” according to Robbie. “I’ve never seen scenes like it before,” she said. “People better brace themselves. It’s really weird. They’re a fascinating couple. Honestly, I find their stuff the most exciting out of everything. I’d watch a dialogue scene between them over, like, buildings blowing up and guns [shooting].”

    17. Robbie has a love-hate relationship with Harley Quinn’s stiletto boots. “To begin with, we were looking at wearing Docs [Dr. Martens boots] and flat shoes. Then we did the camera tests and it was pretty unanimous that, like, ‘You’ll look a lot better looking if you’ve got a bit of height.’ So that’s where the powers-that-be stepped in and voted on a pair of heels,” said Robbie. “Then once I knew that it had to be a pair of heels, I was like, ‘Right, well, I want the most badass looking ones.’ So when I saw the Adidas, I was just like, ‘They are SICK.’ It all happened quite quickly, and before I knew it, I was like, ‘OK, yeah, so that’s the costume.’ Then I walked around in them for a day, and I was like, ‘That was the worst idea. Ever.’”

    18. Robbie trained for six months to prepare for her role as Harley. “[It was] definitely by far the most intense training regime I’ve ever gone through,” said the actress. “I started doing gymnastics. I started doing gun training and this and that. I can understand the technical side of how to do something: ‘Oh, that’s how you do a forward walkover or a handstand for 30 seconds?’ But I didn’t have the physical strength to allow myself to do those things — even the gun training. If I’ve done gymnastics for an hour and a half and then I go straight to the gun range and I’m holding a revolver in my left hand just in case I need to shoot with two hands, my hands are shaking because my muscles are just so sore and not strong enough. But you have to be able to do that because on set, if you’ve got a close-up shot of the gun in the center — in the foreground of the frame — and it’s shaking, you think, ‘Harley doesn’t know what she’s doing. She doesn’t look scary right now. She’s definitely going to miss this shot.’ So ironically enough, it was the more simple things that I had trouble with.”

    From Joel Kinnaman:
    19. There will be a love scene between Kinnaman’s Rick Flag and Cara Delevingne’s Enchantress. “I had a scene with Cara, and it turned into this beautiful love scene,” said Kinnaman. “Cara is both June Moon and Enchantress, so there’s a love story between us.” As for the details of their romance, “You have to see the movie,” said the actor.

    20. Kinnaman and co-stars Scott Eastwood and Alex Meraz trained with former Delta Force members for their roles in “Suicide Squad.” “It’s been really intense,” Kinnaman said. “We actually had a three-day immersion training where we didn’t sleep for 50 hours. We were out in the woods with weights in our backpacks. … There’s this quiet anger that you get from not sleeping for 50 hours.”

    21. Kinnaman gained 30 pounds in two months for his role as Rick Flag in “Suicide Squad.” He also injured himself early in the training process. “I got injured a lot in the beginning of this,” he said. “I was pushing myself a little too hard, I think.”

    22. Kinnaman got burned by multiple shell casing while shooting the biggest action sequence in “Suicide Squad.” “I got four inside my shirt last night,” he said. “I was really in a bad mood.”

    From Jay Hernandez:23. El Diablo’s backstory is particularly heavy. “[He] killed a lot of people, including family members, and so I’m wrestling with that,” said Hernandez of his alter ego. “It’s part of the reason why I refused to fight for a long time because I sort of made a vow that I would never hurt anybody and would become, or try to become, a better person and not cause harm in the ways that I did in the past.”

    24. Hernandez shaved off his eyebrows for his role as El Diablo. “I have to shave my head and my eyebrows pretty much every day,” said the actor, who also underwent four hours of fake tattoo application every time he filmed.

    25. Hernandez almost drowned while shooting a scene in which El Diablo’s prison cell is flooded with water. “It’s a massive steel tube that fills up with water, and the entire thing fills up in a mater of seconds — it’s like five seconds, and it’s gotta be like a thousand gallons or more,” Hernandez said. “I’m trying to sell that I’m drowning, right? And I didn’t really have to work too hard because I was almost drowning. … The water actually went above the mark that it was supposed to stop at. Luckily there was an escape hatch.”

    From Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje:26. Killer Croc is a sculptor — of cats. “It’s how he expresses himself,” said Akinnuoye-Agbaje. “He’s very primal, carnal. He’s a creature. And those felines, those are his brethren. So if he’s making sculptures that reflect that, it may be a pet that he may have had when he was a child. … After the battle he may sculpt people that he’s taken down as symbols or trophies. He’s very creative. That’s another aspect that you’re going to see in him. Just when you think you’ve got him pegged, he does something very surprising and makes these beautiful sculpted pieces.

    27. Killer Croc was “tortured and abused by his childhood,” according to Akinnuoye-Agbaje. “His aunt used to try to scrub the scales off of him,” explained the actor. “He’s always been ostracized and ridiculed for how he looks. What he’s done is embrace that. Instead of saying ‘I’m ugly,’ he says, ‘I’m beautiful.’ Instead of going underground as if he’s hiding, he says, ‘This is my kingdom.’ He’s kind of reversed some of his childhood abuse into allowing him to become what he is, which is really the next threat to take over Gotham. That’s really what his ultimate goal is. One of the reasons is probably because [he wants] power and respect but [also for] people to like him. And if you don’t, you’re going to have to if he’s got power.”

    28. Akinnuoye-Agbaje studied alligators in the Everglades and Fort Lauderdale to prepare for his role as Killer Croc. He spent hours videotaping them and even went in the ring with one. “There’s a tourist thing, and you can actually go in there,” explained the actor.

    29. Akinnuoye-Agbaje did weight training twice a day (for about four or five hours total) for six weeks to prepare for his role as Killer Croc. He also did fight training every afternoon and practiced calisthenics (“a lot of neck exercises and things like that,” he said) to prepare himself for his character’s crocodile prosthetics.

    From Karen Fukuhara:
    30. Katana will be much younger in the film adaptation of “Suicide Squad” than she is in the comic books. “She had a husband that passed away — was murdered — and she had two children,” said Fukuhara of the original Katana, who’s in her 30s. “I’m only 23, and I’ve never gone through the motherhood experience, so that was a little bit difficult to understand. In terms of the movie, that aspect is not entirely in it. It has a special place in my heart, but I never had to play it.”

    31. Katana will, in fact, address the souls trapped in her sword. “My husband Maseo is definitely in there,” said Fukuhara. “There are a few moments when I have conversations with the sword. … It’s pretty much my husband in object form, so it’s not weird at all for [Katana].”

    32. Katana will have a strong rapport with Rick Flag. She also shares scenes with The Joker, but they’re “supposed to be a secret,” said Fukuhara. As for Enchantress, “I don’t really encounter her until the very end, so there’s not too much of a connection with her,” added the actress.

    33. Fukuhara is excited to get the action figure treatment. “I’ve never had something like that, so I hope she looks just as bad ass as she does in the comics — and that there’s a little taste of my face,” said the actress. “I’m going to buy a couple, I’m sure,” she added. “That might be a little creepy.”

    34. Fukuhara’s “Suicide Squad” training consisted of two to three hours a day of fitness, martial arts and sword training.
    35. Will Smith took his responsibility as a leader on set very seriously. “He’s the class clown,” Fukuhara said. “He makes a lot of great jokes and tells us his stories from his life. He’s very approachable, which was something that was very surprising to me because I’ve never met someone so renowned. One time he had an injury somewhere on his leg … and usually people don’t train during that time, but he came in with his trainer and he was just working on his upper body where he could work out. He was saying, ‘You know what? This is what it’s going to take to make this movie. This is who I am. This is how I got here. I’m not gonna back down and take a break.’ That was really inspiring to me because he pushed hard. Seeing someone like that push through the hardships was really, really cool.”

    36. Will Smith rapped the “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” theme song on set. “That’s just who he is,” said Fukuhara. “Between takes, he’ll just go for fun.”
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  • The Joker’s Tattoos Are ‘Suicide Squad’ Easter Eggs

    When the “Suicide Squad” characters were first introduced, there was some controversy over Jared Leto’s heavily-tattooed version of The Joker. But according to director David Ayer, there’s a very specific inspiration behind Leto’s Joker look — and those tattoos actually reveal a lot about the character and film.

    In an interview with Yahoo! Movies UK, Ayer explained how he decided upon Leto’s look for the flick, telling the site, “I took a lot of inspiration from drug lords on Instagram.” From their flashy cars to customized guns to, yes, their copious gang tattoos, there’s a little bit of those real-life nefarious characters in The Joker as well. And as for just what the ink depicts, there’s a reason behind each bit of imagery, according to Ayer.

    “The tattoos tell a very specific story,” the director explained to Yahoo!. “And eventually people will decipher them and understand what’s going on, but obviously they’re contentious, any time you do something new it’s contentious. There’s very specific stories and easter eggs in those tattoos. And even his teeth, there’s an entire story behind that which is absolutely canon. It’s putting his history on his body. This Joker is a little more working class, who I believe could live in our world.”

    The significance of tattoos doesn’t stop with The Joker, since Harley Quinn sports as few of her own, too. As actress Margot Robbie told Yahoo!, there’s a character-driven reason behind the crudely-drawn ink.

    “She did these herself in prison,” Robbie explained to the site while showing off the tattoos. “They’re stick and poke tattoos, prison-style tattoos, that you do when you don’t have a tattoo gun. She did them herself out of boredom and desperation… There’s I Heart Puddin’, a Joker face, a love heart… that’s obviously reflective of her time in prison.”

    Fans will get to see for themselves whether or not the ink adds to (or detracts from) the characters when “Suicide Squad” hits theaters on August 5.

    [via: Yahoo! Movies UK]

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  • Here’s a New ‘Suicide Squad’ Photo, and Details on Ben Affleck’s ‘Awesome’ Role

    While Marvel plans to unite its cinematic universe in “Avengers: Infinity War,” DC Comics is busy building its own world of superheroes and supervillains. DC’s next major movie title, “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” arrives on March 25, followed by the villains of “Suicide Squad” on August 5.

    A new “Squad” photo was just released (that’s it, above), featuring Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), Katana (Karen Fukuhara), Rick Flagg (Joel Kinnaman), Deadshot (Will Smith), and Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney).

    USA Today debuted the pic and got details on Ben Affleck‘s role in the David Ayer-directed movie. As they noted, in “Suicide Squad,” Deadshot and company are part of a team put together by government official Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) to deal with a mysterious adversary; the movie also showcases a new version of The Joker, played by Jared Leto. Here’s the part on Affleck’s Batman:

    When you have Batman’s archnemesis, the hero himself can’t be far behind, and one of Ayer’s favorite days was filming Affleck’s part in Suicide Squad. “We made him fight,” the director says with a laugh. “He’s awesome (as Batman). … You really sense that but for the grace of God he himself would be doing some really foul stuff out in the world.”

    For his own part, Ben Affleck told USA Today he’s “bound by nondisclosure clauses a mile long” so he couldn’t share specifics about his “Suicide Squad” role. However, he praised the film as “such a cool cousin” to his own, adding, “This thing that is so awesome is somehow related to me, and that was really exciting because it started to feel like a constellation of things, and I’ve never had that feeling.”

    When Batman starts feeling “a constellation of things,” color us intrigued. Are you excited for the next round of DC movies?

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  • Jared Leto Shares ‘Clever, Sweet’ Message From Past Jokers

    “Suicide Squad” star Jared Leto has some big shoes to fill as The Joker, and many fans are still skeptical that he’s up to the job. You may recall the Internet’s jokes and insults after the first image of Leto’s Joker was released, and there was even a video of Jack Nicholson crying to show his “reaction” to the new Joker.

    But Jared Leto just shared a more supportive fan reaction on Instagram. Here’s Jack Nicholson’s 1989 Joker giving Heath Ledger’s 2008 Joker a pep talk about the 2016 version:


    Jared praised the fan’s creative image, calling it “clever sweet + fun.”

    When Heath Ledger was cast as The Joker in “The Dark Knight,” plenty of fans questioned whether he could live up to Jack’s version from “Batman.” Heath showed there’s room for more than one take on the iconic villain, and he won a posthumous Oscar for the role. No one is suggesting Jared Leto will pick up an Academy Award for his 2016 Joker, but he does already have a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, so why NOT so serious?

    “Suicide Squad” director David Ayer is promising great things from Jared’s Joker, telling Empire Magazine, “The Joker is the third rail of comic book movies. There’s a power to that character, and by some freaking miracle, through the incredible things Jared has done and the photography and all the other millions of things that went into it, we’ve cooked up something transcendent. He’s scary.”

    “Suicide Squad” opens August 5, 2016.

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