With DC and Warner Brother’s male centric films like Batman, Superman and Green Lantern garnering attention for big screen adaptations, there seems to be very little attention on adapting Wonder Woman to the big screen. No doubt a film focusing on a female superhero will bring in a wide audience, both male and female. Wonder Woman is one of the biggest and most popular of the lady warriors. So far, news regarding Wonder Woman is scarce. Work was started on the film a number of years ago with Joss Whedon slated as both writer and director. Matthew Jenison and Brett Strickland were also assigned to write a script with Joel Silver acting as producing. They set the plot during World War II. Recently, after Comic Con 2010, a rumour surfaced that stated that DC/WB was going to announce a
Wonder Woman film with David Goyer, who wrote
Blade and
Batman Begins, being assigned to write and direct. Another news report announced that WB are working on a
Wonder Woman movie which is slated for release in 2013.
We might have to assume that a
Wonder Woman film may be given the go ahead after
Green Lantern,
The Dark Knight sequel, and the expected
Superman reboot. That is indeed disappointing because the arguments that favour a big screen adaptation are simple: she is incredibly iconic and so far DC’s major big screen comic book adaptations have favoured male characters. Not only that, but there are fascinating stories full of mythology to draw from that can give inspiration for a plot. However, one cannot forget that she is in fact a member of the big three - Trinity. Also, previous comic book movies featuring a female hero in the lead garnered negative criticism from fans and critics. Therefore, one can make the argument that a
Wonder Woman movie might just be the ideal means to reinvent and reestablish a comic book movie featuring a woman as the title character.
One reason that WB is holding back on a
Wonder Woman movie may be because general audiences may tend to see Wonder Woman as a feminist with man issues. That is indeed a very narrow minded view to have on the character. Angelina Jolie proved in
Lara Craft: Tomb Raider that female heroes can make successful translations onto the big screen. The movie also showed that women can truly hold their own in the male character dominated genre of action films. Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley also proved that action films with a female lead do indeed work as did Kate Beckinsale in the
Underworld series of films. Wonder Woman’s name is Diana Prince and she is an Amazon from fabled Greek mythology. All versions of Diana depict her as a masterful athlete, acrobat, fighter and strategist, trained and experienced in many ancient and modern forms of armed and unarmed combat, including exclusively Amazonian martial arts (from Wikipedia.com). She possess power similar to that of Superman: super strength, speed, stamina, agility, flight and animal empathy. She is also resistant to magic, which even Superman is not.
Of course Wonder Woman is way more than a manifestation of her super powers – she is also about love and peace which bring a nice balance to the macho depictions of DC’s comic book adaptations that have “graced” the big screen. Her Lasso of Truth may even lend itself to some hunourous moments.
The Dark Knight and
Superman Returns were contemporary pieces, that is, they were set during our present and featured technology and issues akin to our time. An important question is: Should a
Wonder Woman movie also be a contemporary adaptation or a period piece? Granted the original comic book series set the time during World War II, however, if the intention is to bring a
Justice League film to the big screen, then perhaps a modern telling of the character is in order to at least to make it as resonant and concurrent as
Batman Begins,
The Dark Knight and the expected
Superman reboot. Either way, Wonder Woman is deserving of a live-action major motion picture.
It is very likely that even people who are not familiar with the Wonder Woman comic books would go and see a
Wonder Woman movie, simply because Wonder Woman is arguably the most popular and well known of super heroines.
Wonder Woman stories are a mesh of myth and history inspired from the Greco-Roman accounts. A Wonder Woman movie should ideally incorporate the mythical and the historical qualities of Wonder Woman lore (as inspired from the fore-mentioned Greco-Roman accounts) with the tangible – in other words a combination of fantasy with realism, which can be depicted in a grandiose scale. Imagine an epic battle with Amazons battling a horde of warriors à la Zack Snyder’s
300, with Diana leading the charge! It is myth meets history meets comic book movie – a concept that would be WONDERful!
In summing up what makes Wonder Woman an ideal heroine to bring to a live-action big screen adaptation:
- She is a strong, agile and reputed warrior who is very much a female counterpart to Superman
- Iconic, popular and the biggest name amongst super heroines for a general movie going audience.
- Creates a feminine balance to the male centric assortment of male lead comic book movies and therefore adds variation to the genre.
- An ideal means to reestablish comic book movies giving center stage to female heroes.
Wonder Woman poster by 6of13