Margot Robbie’s production company looks set to take on a film based on Avengelyne, a comic book character created by Deadpool’s Rob Liefeld.
If reports are accurate, Booksmart director Olivia Wilde is set to make Avengelyne, a take on the comic book character created by the mind behind Deadpool, Rob Liefeld. It’s the second project Wilde has lined up at Margot Robbie’s production company, LuckyChap Entertainment.
According to Deadline, 'Avengelyne is an angel who fights the forces of evil and often finds herself face-to-face with demons and monsters. She was the most feared warrior in Heaven’s Warhost, having single-handedly broken into Pandemonium, the outer fortress of Hell, to confront the Devil himself. She is a fallen angel, banished from Heaven by God after being tricked into questioning his love for humans. Avengelyne was stripped of all her angelic abilities, other than her great strength and her blood, which, once extracted from her body, could be used as a weapon or a miracle once empowered by quoting verses from the Bible. Avengelyne uses her powers to fight demons on Earth and is being groomed to be humankind’s last hope in a coming Armageddon.’
It’s early days, but we can imagine that a warrior angel banished to Earth might create a fun ‘fish out of water’ story that Wilde could sink her teeth into. While her most recent release, 2022’s Don’t Worry Darling, didn’t enjoy the same critical acclaim as 2019’s Booksmart, we can see the potential here for Wilde to play to two of her clear strengths as a filmmaker: stylishly-made cinema with sharp comic beats. As for Robbie, her level of involvement is unclear as yet, with the outlet suggesting she might star in the project – although her camp is said to be denying this. Finally, a ‘big A-list writer’ is on the verge of being brought in to write the screenplay.
Read more: Barbie review | Crikey, they pulled it off
In the wake of Barbie’s monumental success last year, LuckyChap Entertainment seems to have gone into overdrive. The production company founded by Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley, Josey McNamara and Sophia Kerr has announced several projects in the last few weeks alone, signalling a continued upscale in production in the wake of Barbie's huge commercial and critical success.
The company’s first film, I, Tonya, was its sole release in 2017. The same would be true for the next five years, until we hit 2023. Then, LuckChap released three films, Boston Strangler, Saltburn and Barbie. Given that the latter two became two of the most talked-about films of the year, the company now finds itself in an enviable situation, we’d imagine, with no shortage of investors waving their chequebooks and looking to back whichever projects LuckyChap is looking to put together.
There are plenty to choose from, too: in the past couple of weeks alone, we’ve heard that LuckyChap is developing a movie based on popular life sim videogame, The Sims, not to mention a remake of the 1934 mystery comedy, The Thin Man. LuckyChap is also involved with Universal Picture’s Naughty, a Christmas comedy set to be directed by Wilde – presumably in addition to Avengelyne.
Plenty of questions remain about Avengelyne, then, but we’re interested to see where this one goes. Naughty is currently said to be in pre-production, so will Wilde move straight from one LuckyChap project to another this year? We’ll let you know more as we hear it.
