{"id":12519,"date":"2021-08-12T21:49:31","date_gmt":"2021-08-12T19:49:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/?p=12519"},"modified":"2021-08-12T22:25:59","modified_gmt":"2021-08-12T20:25:59","slug":"qa-with-charles-roven-producer-the-suicide-squad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/blog\/2021\/08\/12\/qa-with-charles-roven-producer-the-suicide-squad\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A With Charles Roven, Producer, The Suicide Squad"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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You have a long history with DC films\u2014what makes The Suicide Squad and this particular group of Super-Villains exciting for you?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working with Margot and Joel and Jai again was also very exciting. It\u2019s 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\u2026 It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The interesting thing was, yes, there\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Actually, the biggest challenge that we had in terms of just getting the movie done was dealing with all of the actors\u2019 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s going to mean for the film and its fans?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2014and I understand why some might and will\u2014I 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s beautifully said. I would end on that, but I have to ask you: Who\u2019s the real villain, Harley Quinn or Amanda Waller?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s the great thing about the way James wrote this\u2014I 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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