Margot Robbie to Star in Period Love Drama 'Queen of the Air' (Exclusive)

The script from the 2013 book tells the story of trapeze artist Lillian Leitzel and her tragic love affair with Alfredo Codona.

Margot Robbie is going from Quinn to Queen.

The actress, fresh from her standout performance as Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad, is attached to star in Queen of the Air, Warner Bros.' adaptation of the book by Dean N. Jensen.

Andrew Lazar, one of the producers of the studio’s mega hit American Sniper, is producing the period love drama, which has a script by Cat Vasko.

Jensen’s book, published by Crown in 2013, told the story of Lillian Leitzel, a trapeze artist who in the early 20th century was one of the biggest stars in the world as she performed for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Her tragic love affair with Alfredo Codona, who may have been one of the best trapeze artists to ever flip under the big top, also was chronicled. The two were tempestuous artists, divas and madly in love.

Leitzel, who was 4 foot, 9 inches tall, had a signature move that required her to dislocate her shoulder at every turn (she would do the move a hundred times) and had wrists that had been grooved from ropes.

Codona, for his part, regularly executed the Triple: three somersaults in the air so dangerous that other performers died trying to do it.

The book tracked their rise to fame, from the mud-caked small-town circuses to the big time, and their marriage and tragic deaths just a few years later.

Niija Kuykendall is overseeing the project.

There is no director yet for Queen of the Air but the attachment shows how keen Warners is on staying in the Robbie business. The actress already has starred in 2015's Focus and this summer’s The Legend of Tarzan for the studio and Suicide Squad has generated much buzz for Robbie for her turn as the DC Comics villainess. Plans are already afoot for Robbie to star in and develop a spinoff featuring Harley Quinn and other DC female heroes and villains.

The actress next shoots Goodbye Christopher Robin, Fox Searchlight’s tale of A.A. Milne and his writing of Winnie the Pooh.

Robbie is repped by Management 360, CAA, Jackoway Tyerman and Australia’s Aran Michael Management.