Warners Brothers’ Birds Of Prey, which would feature Margot Robbie’s Suicide Squad character of Harley Quinn alongside other female heroes and villains from DC Comics, has been awarded a $12.6 million production tax credit from California’s Film & Tax Credit Program should the project move out of development and get in front of cameras.
To earn the credit, Warner brothers has had to develop enough of a budget for the film to be able to indicate that it would meet the requirements for wages to below-the-line crew and payments for equipment and vendors. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the studio has budgeted those expenditures out to approximately $63 million and still had an overall budget that did not surpass the program’s $75 million budget ceiling. The $12.6 million tax credit comes out to be anywhere between 17 to 20 percent of the film’s total budget.
Interestingly, it also gives the film a price tag just a little higher than the $55 million being spent for Todd Phillip’s Joker which starts filming in September in New York City.
Although Birds Of Prey has not been given an official greenlight, it sounds fairly fait accompli now, with the Reporter quoting WB senior VP of Production Kelly Smith-Wait –
We are excited to be awarded an incentive from the California Film & TV Tax Credit Program, which will allow us to produce Birds Of Prey in the Golden State. The project will have a large footprint and create hundreds of new jobs for women and men in our industry.
Again, that’s not an official announcement, but it does sound as if one will be coming fairly soon.
Director Cathy Yan is attached to direct Birds Of Prey with Christina Hodson scripting.
