WORLD BUILDING

Production designer Beth Mickle on designing The Suicide Squad.

ON CREATING CORTO MALTESE

James’ main reference was Havana. If you look at Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, and some other Latin South American towns, a lot of the inner cities have actually been cleaned up, and have nicer facades and newer finishes. James just said he wanted it to look really colourful but decrepit. I was never happier than the day the location scouts sent me photos from Colón, Panama, because it sort of hit the nail on the head.

ON FINDING INSPIRATION IN CLASSIC WAR CAPER MOVIES

A lot of those movies take place in these old German forts and castles with this great old stonework – we have these great stone arches and entryways that kind of harken back to the castle that they go into in Where Eagles

Dare. We liked the tone of those older films and the camaraderie that comes from them, but we also liked the grittiness that comes from some of the newer war films like Black Hawk Down, Jarhead and Saving Private

Ryan. We watched those to try to figure out how we could embody some of that energy as well.

ON COMPARISONS WITH GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

It’s more documentary-style in places – it’s handheld and it’s rough and it’s dirty. And we’re sort of finding frames as we go, rather than tracking characters perfectly through [scenes]. It makes it a very different sort of moviegoing experience, I think. I can’t think of another superhero movie that’s been approached that way.