Q&A With Charles Roven, Producer, The Suicide Squad

You have a long history with DC films—what makes The Suicide Squad and this particular group of Super-Villains exciting for you?

James Gunn. And also working with all these talented actors, many of whom I never met before. Obviously, I’ve worked with James before, we worked together on two other movies, Scooby-Doo and Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed, which James wrote. I’ve worked with Margot Robbie and Jai Courtney and Joel Kinnaman before, they’re terrific. I really enjoyed working with them, but I had never worked with James as a director. And that was just a fantastic experience. He’s obviously done some pretty great movies since he wrote those Scooby movies for me and for Warner Bros., and I was excited when he said that he wanted to try his hand at a script on The Suicide Squad. He knew what he wanted to accomplish and how he wanted to feature characters that weren’t necessarily the most popular characters, and to bring characters together from different periods of the comics, The Suicide Squad and The New 52, and he did just that. Every step of the way, it was just a very positive experience, because he’s meticulous, always comes prepared, and always does his homework. The moment he finishes the script, he starts the storyboards. He created an amazing environment.

Working with Margot and Joel and Jai again was also very exciting. It’s so interesting, the friendship that those three and a few others developed on the first movie. We were just talking about how great friends they are, even today. Then it was exciting to see James create such an amazing tone for the movie. His ability to create humor, spectacular action and these characters that are so relatable and so true to what these characters should be. And yet the arcs that they have, and the way that they come together… It’s just so unique that he can do things that in a way feel kind of absurd, and yet they work. Then all of a sudden you’re getting a little choked up because the characters are evolving in a very interesting, emotional way you never expect to feel in a movie like this.

This was a massive production. You’ve been on a lot of very big studio films, but what was the challenge for you with the scale of this one?

The interesting thing was, yes, there’ve been other movies that I’ve worked on that were more expansive, but in terms of this vision, this vision was as big as any of them. So many characters that you have to service. For however long they were on the screen, you still have to service them and make them feel like they were real and give them their own certain kind of arc. He was able to accomplish that. We were definitely worried about the budget going into it, but we came in significantly under budget. Then we went down to Panama, which ended up being terrific. The look of the movie was really enhanced by us shooting there.

Actually, the biggest challenge that we had in terms of just getting the movie done was dealing with all of the actors’ schedules, because they were all doing other things, so we had to work around that. Almost every single actor or actress, particularly if they had a prominent name, was otherwise occupied at certain times of the schedule. That was not easy.

This movie is going to be coming out at a time when, as you know, theaters are just beginning to really open around the world. What does that mean to you as a filmmaker, but also what do you think that’s going to mean for the film and its fans?

I think there’s a commonality in enjoying the collective experience. And particularly with this movie that’s got so much scale, so much scope, and all that wide range of emotion that we talked about. Great humor, great action, yet sometimes you get a lump in your throat. It’s just the perfect movie for people to be able to look to their right, look to their left, to their family, their friends, and share that collective experience in a crowd. I know there are going to be some territories where there will still be restrictions, but I really think that, where they can, people are going to run to the movies. Even if you see the movie on HBO Max—and I understand why some might and will—I hope they still want to see it for a second time and that they want to go out to the movies to experience it. Or I hope they go out to the movies and see it and then want to see it again on HBO Max. I think that’s possible with a movie like this. But I have to say, if you want a great experience in the theater, you couldn’t find a better movie at a better time. I think it’s the perfect movie for this moment.

That’s beautifully said. I would end on that, but I have to ask you: Who’s the real villain, Harley Quinn or Amanda Waller?

That’s the great thing about the way James wrote this—I actually think that there are other villains in the movie that are maybe even worse than the two of them. But between those two, it’s definitely Amanda Waller.

Read more about The Suicide Squad

CHARLES ROVEN (Producer) is an Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe-winning producer and leader in the entertainment industry of over four decades, and founder of Atlas Entertainment. Throughout his illustrious career, Roven has built a reputation for creative collaboration and has garnered acclaim for his work in film, television and music. As a producer, founder and board member of a number of major entertainment companies, Roven has helped generate billions of dollars in revenue. At the global theatrical box office alone, his films have grossed over $9.5 Billion to date, making him among the top ten grossing producers of all time.

Roven’s most recent feature film, “Wonder Woman 1984,” directed by Patty Jenkins and starring Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig, and Pedro Pascal, was released simultaneously in-theaters and on HBO Max on December 25, 2020 and generated an enthusiastic response from critics and fans across the globe. Within the film’s first three days on HBO Max, the platform registered more new sign-ups than any other streaming service has in a three-day period in the past year. Roven also produced J.C. Chandor’s “Triple Frontier,” starring Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, Garrett Hedlund and Pedro Pascal, which was released by Netflix in March 2019 and watched by more than 63 million accounts and over 120 million people in the first four months. It is still consistently one of Netflix’s most-watched Original Films.

Roven is currently in post-production on multiple films, including “Uncharted,” based on Sony PlayStation’s most successful game, directed by Ruben Fleischer, and starring Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg, and Antonio Banderas, which wrapped principal photography in October 2020 and is set for release on February 18, 2022.

Roven has produced many of the DC Expanded Universe films distributed by Warner Bros. In 2017, “Wonder Woman,” directed by Patty Jenkins, broke numerous box office records and was nominated for the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures by the Producers Guild of America (PGA). In addition, Roven produced David Ayer’s “Suicide Squad” and Zack Snyder’s “Man of Steel,” “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” “Justice League” and most recently “Zack Snyder’s Justice League,” which was released in March 2021 on HBO Max. Among the 100 top-grossing films of all time, Roven has produced four: “The Dark Knight Rises,” “The Dark Knight,” “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” and “Wonder Woman.”

Having previously produced David O. Russell’s “Three Kings,” Roven collaborated with the filmmaker for a second time on the award-winning “American Hustle.” The film received seven Golden Globe nominations, winning three, including Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical, and took home three BAFTA awards. The celebrated box office hit was also nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including a Best Picture nomination for Roven.

Roven produced Christopher Nolan’s worldwide cinematic phenomena “The Dark Knight” Trilogy (“Batman Begins,” “The Dark Knight” and “The Dark Knight Rises”) as well as critically acclaimed films such as “The Bank Job” and the timeless romantic classic “City of Angels.” Additionally, Roven produced “Get Smart” and the 1995 Oscar-nominated film “Twelve Monkeys,” which was later adapted into an Atlas-executive produced television series of the same name.
Roven has also produced branded entertainment box office favorites, including “Scooby-Doo” and “Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.” He served as executive producer on the animated Scooby-Doo feature “SCOOB,” starring Zac Efron and Amanda Seyfried, which was released digitally on May 15, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
For television, Roven executive produced the Atlas Entertainment-scripted anthology series “Dirty John,” based on the popular true crime podcast of the same name. The show’s first season, which featured an all-star cast led by Connie Britton, Eric Bana, Juno Temple and Julia Garner, became the most-watched scripted series ever among total viewers for Bravo and was nominated for Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Awards. The series’ second season, entitled “Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story,” starring Amanda Peet and Christian Slater, premiered June 2, 2020 on USA. Roven also served as an executive producer on “What / If,” the social thriller anthology series created by Mike Kelley and starring Renee Zellweger and Jane Levy, which premiered on Netflix in May 2019.

Roven’s success in entertainment goes well beyond producing. In 1990, Roven and Robert Cavallo co-founded Roven/Cavallo Entertainment (RCE), the predecessor to Atlas Entertainment, which, in addition to producing films, guided the trajectories of some of the largest names in music. Clients included multi-Grammy-winning recording artists Green Day, Alanis Morissette, Seal, Goo Goo Dolls, Weezer, Savage Garden, LeAnn Rimes, All American Rejects and Paula Abdul. RCE fostered Morissette throughout her early career, including the release of her album Jagged Little Pill, which remains one of the best-selling albums of all time by a female artist.
In 1993, the legendary Dawn Steel, Roven’s wife, joined the venture and RCE’s production banner was re-named Atlas Entertainment and its music management affiliate became Atlas/Third Rail Management. In 1998, Roven took the sole reins of Atlas Entertainment after Steel’s passing and a nine-year partnership with Cavallo, during which the company produced the $200 million grossing film “City of Angels.” Atlas/Third Rail simultaneously packaged the film’s soundtrack, which won three Grammy Awards, yielded #1 singles for Atlas/Third Rail artists Alanis Morissette and the Goo Goo Dolls, and made the soundtrack the largest selling album of the year while earning ten platinum records.

Roven went on to merge the Atlas Entertainment entities with talent management group The Gold/Miller Company, forming Mosaic Media Group (MMG). The company’s talent management clients included prolific comedians and actors Ellen DeGeneres, Vince Vaughn, Jim Carrey, Will Ferrell, the Wayans family, and Sacha Baron Cohen, as well as formidable directors Jay Roach, Judd Apatow and Adam McKay. This merger came from the common desire of the principals to be part of a true multimedia company with the ability to package projects, fully exploit opportunities for their clients through a multi-platformed approach and acquire entertainment related media assets. These assets included a legendary catalogue of music properties, notably the entire ZZ Top catalogue, songs by rock pioneers Aerosmith and other chart-toppers from the country and rock-and-roll genres. With a cutting-edge philosophy around multimedia, MMG was an early strategic partner of MP3.COM (an early online music platform), which became one of the first internet media companies with a successful IPO.

Roven, alongside MMG president Allen Shapiro, oversaw the acquisition of Dick Clark Productions (DCP), whose celebrated programming includes the Golden Globe Awards, the American Music Awards, the Academy of Country Music Awards and the annual “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.” Roven served on the board that packaged the first original hit series for DCP in over a decade: the game-changing reality competition show “So You Think You Can Dance,” which wrapped its 15th season in 2018. In 2007, Roven served as chairman of the negotiating committee which sold DCP to Red Zone Capital Fund, the investment team chaired by Daniel Snyder, the owner of the Washington Redskins.

In 2008, after tremendous success and accomplishing the goals they set almost a decade before, the partners of MMG took back their individual organizations in an effort to focus on their specific passions. Roven’s decision to streamline his focus on film and content was recognized with the ShoWest Producer of the Year Award as well as Filmmaker of the Year at the Dubai International Film Festival in 2008.

Looking to capitalize on the synergistic relationship music has with motion pictures, Atlas Entertainment teamed with Atlantic Records in 2016 to deliver a companion soundtrack to the company’s $746 million worldwide box office blockbuster “Suicide Squad.” The soundtrack debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and was the only soundtrack certified Platinum that year. Suicide Squad: The Album was nominated for five Grammy Awards and has been streamed over 3 billion times worldwide.

In 2018, Roven’s legacy in Hollywood was cemented when he received the prestigious David O. Selznick Achievement Award from the PGA for his outstanding body of work in motion pictures.

By Andrew Germishuys

Founder of SAMDB | Actor | Armourer | Tech Enthusiast With over two decades in the film industry, I'm a seasoned actor and skilled armourer. I hold numerous certifications in acting and filmmaking, complemented by degrees and diplomas in IT and technology, giving me a unique blend of creative and technical expertise. When I'm not on set or in the workshop, you'll find me immersed in the world of gaming and VR, fuelling my passion for cutting-edge technology. Connect with me: X / Twitter Facebook Instagram Mastodon Threads Explore my work on SAMDB IMDb

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