Wonder Woman Casting Months Away

Studio insider Ausiello told TV Guide this about Joss Whedon's Wonder Woman movie: "I've got good news and bad news for you, Bri. The good news: Such a chance actually did present itself last Thursday, when Joss phoned me during a break from editing Serenity to chat about lassoing Wonder Woman and resurrecting a certain 150-year-old, English vamp on WB (more on that later) [a reference to a possible Spike TV movie].

"The bad news: I never got around to pitching [Xena's Lucy] Lawless. I did, however, find out that Whedon is months away from finding his ideal Woman. 'Everybody is in agreement that casting is not an issue right now,' he says. 'It's not a vehicle to be built around a particular star. We want to write the thing, find the right character and then figure out who should play her. There are various famous people whose names have come up, because that always happens, but you know, we're talking about Wonder Woman here. Those are tough booties to fill.'

"That said, it sounds like Whedon knows enough about Lynda Carter's successor to rule out Lawless and (sigh) [Lauren] Graham. 'I think we will go a little younger than the traditional idea of Wonder Woman,' he says, adding that the new Princess Diana will likely be in her early twenties and played by someone outside the Buffyverse. 'It's a movie, not a party for my friends.' That certainly bodes well for rumored front-runner Jessica Biel."

Whedon told MTV his thoughts about WW: "I think she sort of sprang out fully formed, much like Athena herself. And, you know, it's a question of really getting behind that. ... In the '40s, when it was first

done, she came to the world from Paradise Island and then went about her business, and so that experience, which is really a rite of passage, which is the same as any hero has to go through, has never really been investigated the way I want to. So, to take it back to the beginning and really say, 'Well, really, what was it like for an Amazon princess to come amongst us?'"