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EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros and DC Entertainment have chosen Cathy Yan to be the director of an untitled girl gang movie, likely the next superhero film to be graced by

scene-stealer Harley Quinn, in the form of Margot Robbie. A deal has to be completed, but it is expected that Yan will become the third female filmmaker to join the DC club after

‘s Patty Jenkins and Ava DuVernay (for upcoming

), and the first female Asian director ever tapped to direct a superhero film.

'Bumblebee' Scribe Christina Hodson Now Working On 'Batgirl'

This is a bold bet for Warner Bros’ Geoff Johns and Walter Hamada, who oversee DC under Toby Emmerich. Yan got the job over numerous well established male directors, and because she is taking this giant leap with just one small-budget indie movie under her belt. That would be

, a film that won the World Cinema Dramatic Award For Ensemble Acting at Sundance last January. Despite being a new talent, Yan’s presentation for

was exceptional, and Robbie held firm to her desire for this film to be directed by a woman.

Robbie’s LuckyChap is producing with Sue Kroll and her Kroll & Co Entertainment and Bryan Unkeless of Clubhouse Pictures. Robbie and Unkeless produced

which in the DC universe teams Quinn with several other crime fighters, namely Black Canary, Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) and Huntress. It is not confirmed if all of them will be characters in the film. What is clear is that both the main characters and most of the creative braintrust are female, remarkable for a studio-sized superhero film. The script was written by Christina Hodson, who wrote the

This film looks cleared to start production by year’s end or early next year, after Robbie completes

She is negotiating to star alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt in the Quentin Tarantino-directed film for Sony Pictures. The other Harley Quinn films are still under construction. That includes the

helmer David Ayer, seem further in the distance.

reporter who worked from New York, Hong Kong and Beijing, and one of the paper’s youngest reporters to land multiple stories on the front page. She wrote and directed numerous short films before stepping up to features with

In that film, a mysterious stream of pig carcasses floats silently toward China’s populous economic hub, Shanghai. As authorities struggle to explain the phenomenon, characters intersect. They include a down-and-out pig farmer with a youthful heart struggles to make ends meet, an upwardly mobile landowner fighting gentrification against an American expat seeking a piece of the Chinese dream, a romantic busboy hides his job from his father, and a rich young woman struggling to find her independence.

Yan is repped by CAA and attorney Jerry Dasti of Sloss Eckhouse Law.

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