Given how self-consciously dark and gritty everything we’ve seen about David Ayer’s Suicide Squad has been, you’d be forgiven for thinking that maybe they were pushing for an R rating. Not the case.
“The intention of the film is definitely to be PG-13,” producer Charles Roven told Collider.
“We really want to make these films tonally consistent so that, as I said because this is a shared universe, at least our current thinking—and again, we’re not dealing in absolutes because while this is business it’s also a creative endeavour, so you want to leave yourself open to changing your mind, doing something different, being inspired, that’s the whole process of filmmaking is you have to allow for inspiration as well as having a road map for what you’re gonna do.”
“So our plan right now is to make all these films PG-13. In some cases, you know, right there on the edge of PG-13, but still PG-13.”
Roven, a veteran of The Dark Knight movies, also spoke about Jared Leto’s method approach to playing The Joker. We heard about his sending a rat to Margot Robbie, and his deliberately distancing himself from the rest of the crew. So how did that actually go down on set?
“Look, you know, it was different, it was fun. The group first wasn’t sure because the AD’s had to call him ‘Mr. J’ to get him to come to the set [laughs]. And he did in many ways isolate himself from the rest of the group, but that’s really what his character was, the purpose of his character in many ways, other than when he was with Harley or trying to get Harley. It was very entertaining, it was fuel for a lot of good sport and a lot of laughs, and his isolation bonded the squad, and we wanted the squad bonded.”
“I have to say, it was one of the most fun sets ever,” he continued. “I’ve been doing this for a while, and the camaraderie that was built on that set—everybody couldn’t wait for the next day to come back to work.”
Roven went on to talk about how excited he is for audiences to see how the different characters interact. “They all have fabulously different arcs, they’re all very individualistic, and I think that also they’re very, very human in their own dysfunctional ways,” he teased. “And I think that the personal individuals stories and how they relate to each other will be surprising.”
So, what do we think? It’s not too surprising that Suicide Squad is aiming for a PG-13 given how it will tie into the DC cinematic universe, but it does make you wonder about just how necessary the therapist they had on set was…
Suicide Squad is in UK cinemas from 5 August 2016. Get all the latest superhero news with every issue of SciFiNow.
