Rabat – Two Belgian-Moroccan directors, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah are set to direct the latest installment in the DC superhero franchise, the upcoming Batgirl movie.
The two directors, commonly known as Adil & Bilall, have made a name for themselves in the gangster-movie genre. They have worked on Black (2015), Gangsta (2018), as well as Bad Boys for Life (2020), starring Will Smith.
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El Arbi and Fallah were both born in Morocco, and later went on to study film in the Sint-Lukas campus of Hogeschool voor Wetenschap en Kunst in Belgium. Having quietly worked on an array of local films and TV shows in Belgium, they finally gathered a wider audience and recognition with their international debut, the third installment in the Bad Boys franchise. The movie became the best-reviewed film in the series and the fourth highest-grossing film of 2020 worldwide.
The movie grossed $204.4 million (MAD 1.8 billion) in North America, and an additional $220.2 million (MAD 1.9 billion) abroad. Worldwide, the film grossed a total of $424.6 million (MAD 3.7 billion), with a production budget of $90 million.
Joss Whedon, the genre-veteran, was originally set to direct the Batgirl movie, but while taking a crack at the script, it “crumbled” in his hands, and he ultimately left the project in April 2018. Following Whedon’s departure, the Belgian-Morocco duo took over the project.
“Adil and Bilall have an excited and joyous energy, which is infectious, making them the perfect filmmakers for this Batproject,” Kristin Burr, the movie’s producer, told the Hollywood Reporter.
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Barbara Gordon, on whom the film will be centered, is the most famous iteration of the Batgirl character. Originally introduced in 1961, as Betty Kane, the character has undergone several revisions since then. The most recent big-screen appearance was portrayed by Alicia Silverstone in the 1997 Batman & Robin.
Recently, the Moroccan-born duo worked on Snowfall, the Ms. Marvel TV show, as well as the US family-drama, Rebel.
