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Nerd Alert! February 5, 2007
Wondering Joss Whedon announced over the weekend he's not making Wonder Woman. After almost two years trying to figure out how to bring Wonder Woman to the big screen, no doubt with same level of quality he brings to the series he created, Joss said Warner Bros. didn't like his take on the project and so they parted ways. It's too bad but actually not that surprising. Personally, I love Joss's work and admire the shit out of him, Buffy, Angel, and Firefly/Serenity. In theory, Buffy The Vampire Slayer's mix of action, humor, emotion, rich characters, magic, and iconic storytelling about a superpowered young girl fighting magic and monsters would make Joss the ideal choice to tackle Wonder Woman. Unfortunately, for all his formidable talent, Whedon is not a Pirates of the Caribbean or Spider-Man four-quadrants kind of filmmaker. His work skews genre-specific and cultish. Joss tends to not be everyone's cup of tea, and while I see this as one of his virtues, it's a detriment in the eyes of movie studio executives. Not to mention that Whedon's sole motion picture directorial effort, Serenity, bombed, and that was already a case of a major studio, Universal, taking a chance on his talent and failing to reap the dividends. I hate to say it because again, I love the guy's stuff and think the world of him as a writer and filmmaker, but in terms of delivering a summer superhero tentpole, studios look at who can put asses in seats and who can deliver $200,000,000+ at the box office. Joss isn't that guy. It sucks he won't get the chance but it's not that surprising. I sure don't envy anyone trying to adapt Wonder Woman, including Joss. It's material filled with landmines. A red, blue, and gold bathing suit for a costume. A magic lasso. Bulletproof bracelets. An invisible jet. An island full of greek Amazons/lesbians. No famous origin, no famous villains, no famous storyline readily adaptable from the comics. And the biggest albatross of all: The sole collective memory the general public has of Wonder Woman is a campy 70's show (and it's horrible theme song ) starring Lynda Carter, who continues to be the flesh and blood definition of the character. Now, Batman had a campy 60's show to overcome and they succeeded beyond anyone's wildest expectations. Superman did the same in the 70's. The Hulk ...I don't wanna talk about Hulk. Wonder Woman making it to the big screen shouldn't be any different from her Justice League teammates, but she is. First of all, she's a female superhero. She is in fact the female superhero. But superheroine movies tend to bomb at the box office, even with Academy Award winners in the title role: Catwoman, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Aeon Flux. (Of course, all of those movies were terrible regardless of who the star was.) Add to that the magic lasso, bathing suit costume, invisible jet, island full of lesbians, etc. and you have a tough nut to crack. Theoretically, a talented director and writers who respect the source material should be able to make Wonder Woman great. It sure seemed like Joss Whedon was that man. We fans of Joss hoped and expected he would make Wonder Woman a three dimensional character with depth and heart and not just a big tittied plastic action blow up doll to jerk off to. Hell, Joss probably did just that in his rejected script. But now he's out. I'd love to read Joss' script one day because I bet it's hella good. I bet it's intelligent, funny, inventive, heartfelt, and probably a little brilliant. (Or maybe it sucks, who knows?) Yet Warners didn't take a shine to his Wonder Woman. I wonder why? |
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