Margot Robbie Producing ‘Avengelyne’ Adaptation With Olivia Wilde Directing
Margot Robbie and her LuckyChap banner are developing an adaptation of Rob Liefeld’s comic Avengelyne, with Olivia Wilde set to direct, The Hollywood Reporter said today.
The project, which also enlisted Simon Kinberg as producer, will be packaged in the coming weeks hoping to entice studios and streamers into buying in. The report also clarified that Robbie’s participation will only be as a producer, and not as the lead actress.
It’s certainly very interesting timing on both accounts, given Barbie‘s success last year and the current status Robbie holds in Hollywood both as a producer (she built the project from the ground up, bringing in director Greta Gerwig) and as an actress. On the flip side, Olivia Wilde was thought to have entered director’s jail after the behind-the-scenes drama on Don’t Worry Darling, in which she was accused of having been absent from set to mess around with her then-boyfriend and lead actor Harry Styles, while Florence Pugh and the cinematographer, Matthew Libatique, were left as the adults in the room and in charge of the production. (It’s all hearsay but multiple accounts have essentially confirmed it over the years.)
Even ignoring the specifics of the rumors, Wilde was set to direct a Spider-Woman film for Sony that’s since been iced, it seems. It took a while for her to take on another project, which may have been because of the box office and critical underperformance of Don’t Worry Darling, but those rumors probably had something to do with it too.
Of course, male directors have been accused of much worse and seen little accountability when booking future jobs, which might be precisely why Robbie wanted Wilde to direct the pic: she’s on a mission to highlight female voices in the industry and if someone was going to give Wilde a chance at redemption, there was probably no one better for it. (Both were part of the cast of Babylon, though they didn’t share much screen time, as Wilde only appeared in one of the opening scenes.)
It should also be mentioned that this isn’t the first Wilde-directed project and backed by LuckyChap that’s been announced over the past few months, as THR also reported in December that Margot Robbie and Olivia Wilde were teaming up for a Christmas comedy for Universal. Avengelyne looks to be a much more tangible project, though — after all, Wilde was crawling her way into Hollywood’s top directors’ list following Booksmart and the prospects of a mind-bending psychological thriller (that sadly didn’t work out), and directing a Christmas comedy would have been nearly humiliating.
LuckyChap has a first-look deal at Warner Bros., which also distributed Don’t Worry Darling and had to endure all of that media frenzy, so it will be interesting to see if they acquire Avengelyne. Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy had just taken over the studio when the film was released, but they also very much like to be in the Margot Robbie business considering the success she brought to WB in 2023.
Elsewhere, Robbie and LuckyChap are developing a Sims movie that Loki‘s Kate Herron will direct. Certainly an interesting beginning of the year for them.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
