By The coolest part about adapting lesser known superheroes and superhero groups into movies is letting audiences peek into the rabbit hole that are comic book villains. As a teen I read through the entire DC encyclopedia or heroes and villains and was astounded at the creativity (re: insanity) writers came up with. Egg Fu, Crazy Quilt, Condiment King, and many more are so inventive. On second thought, most of these villains were probably thought up when someone at DC had writer’s block while in their kitchen. There are still some gems though, like Black Mask, and he’s coming to the movies!
Even more exciting than Black Mask being confirmed in the upcoming Birds of Prey movie is that Ewan McGregor, of having one of the best accents ever fame, will be playing him. Having most recently played a grown up Christopher Robin in the movie of the same name, this will be quite a change of pace for the Scot as he’ll be portraying one of the most sadistic villains in all of Batman lore. Created during the 80s, the dawn of dark and edgy in comics, Black Mask loves all things violent, sadism and torture. He also looks really really mean.
As I said, I enjoy the lesser explored villains because that allows the screenwriters to mold a villain that no one has seen or has expectations about. Additionally, it could be a really cool juxtaposition of Harley Quinn’s quirky sadism compared to the more traditional but much more extreme methods Black Mask can be known for. Of course, this is still DC, the biggest caveat in movies outside of the Dark Universe, so you shouldn’t be excited, but you can certainly let your imagination run wild before Birds of Prey arrives in 2020 to grind any hope you had into dust. Maybe Black Mask is executive producing as well.
Ewan McGregor to Play Batman Villain Black Mask in ‘Birds of Prey’ – [The Hollywood Reporter]