SHELVED! Joss Whedon’s ‘Wonder Woman’
Thursday, February 17th, 2011
In 2005, Joss Whedon was hired to take the reins on a Wonder Woman feature film. In 2007, he left the project. What happened? Find out in this edition of SHELVED!
The Origin
Joss Whedon is one of the most notorious names in fandom with his collection of unforgettable characters, witty dialogue, and extreme character development. His Buffy The Vampire Slayer television series put a footprint in television history and defined a generation of geekdom. Whedon has always been known for writing strong woman characters, in fact, Buffy could be considered one of the most empowering female characters in popular media. It would seem only logical to have him direct the feature film of one of the most iconic woman characters in the DC Universe (if not the entire comics universe), Wonder Woman.
Beginnings and Endings
As Whedon was finishing up Serenity, the follow up film to his space western television series Firefly, it was announced by Warner Brothers that he would be writing and directing a film based on Wonder Woman. For two years Whedon was hard at work writing the script for the film and he wasn’t getting the best of feedback. When he would bring his script to the studio they would claim that really wasn’t what they were looking for and he would go rewrite it. He and the studio also seemed to see two very different films. In February of 2007 Whedon announced that he was no longer involved with the project.
Later in an interview with Maxim, Joss argued that DC Characters with the exception of Batman, seemed very removed from humanity, and when they were created, they were creating gods. Could this somehow be related to his Wonder Woman project? This comment could really be taken in a couple of ways. The first could be that he might have been trying to ground Wonder Woman and not have the film feel overly fantastical. Another reason for this comment could be the frustration that resulted in trying to actually create a movie out of this god-like character that would resonate with an audience.
What We Know
Unlike Kevin Smith’s script for Tim Burton’s Superman Lives, none of the writing was ever leaked for the film. The little bit we know is that Whedon stated that his Wonder Woman was somewhat reminiscent of Angelina Jolie claiming “She spends a lot of time flying around. She works in a lot of different countries. She’s very global. And she’s appalled by the way people treat each other.” He has also claimed that the bracelets would be in the film and the Steve Trevor relationship would be explored.
In 2010, concept artwork from the film was leaked on what Wonder Woman might have looked like. The costume remained more or less reminiscent to the original design of the character with a few changes here and there. For one, they ditched the swimsuit bottoms and traded it in for pants and a skirt. The addition of pants is an idea which DC Comics recently implemented into the Wonder Woman books. In one of the concepts our lasso wielding heroine seems to be sporting a black trench coat. While this is just concept art without a script we still have no idea whether Wonder Woman would’ve appeared in one of these costumes or multiple of them.
How This Could Have Changed the Game
This Wonder Woman film not getting made was a huge turning point in DC films. When the movie was announced by Warner Brothers it was on the eve of their revival of Batman in Batman Begins. Before their Batman blockbusters DC really didn’t have much as far as movies go. The fan resented Halle Berry Catwoman had been released a year prior in 2004, and before that in 1997 Batman and Robin and Steel came out. Having a quality name that is so beloved by fanboys couldn’t have been a better move for DC movies.
What would a Wonder Woman movie mean for the entire DC Universe films. If the Wonder Woman movie was a success could we have gotten a Justice League movie sooner? It’s entirely possible. It seemed Warner Bros. was trying to reboot the big three characters of DC, Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman.
George Miller’s cancelled Justice League: Mortal in 2007 was slated to come out, but with an entirely fresh cast not involved in any previous films. With Joss’ Wonder Woman could we have gotten a JLA film with Christian Bale, Brandon Routh, and the uncast Wonder Woman? Would Chris Nolan have been open to the idea?
A Wonder Woman movie this early could have possibly unlocked the doors for DC Comics ushering in a Flash and Green Lantern movie even earlier. It seems though that Whedon has moved onto another universe where he’ll be directing…well…everyone!
Would you have liked to see this? What did you think of the costume? What would you have liked from the story? Discuss!
-Reid Ackerman
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Interesting… this was also on the heels of the failure of Birds of Prey at the hands of internal wrangling between DC and WB. Seems that Warner and DC wanted to reboot their big properties- but with the exception of Nolans vision of Batman, they couldn’t agree on anything else long enough to get anything made. What a shame, Joss’ Wonder Woman would have been amazing.
Reid, do you proofread your articles?
“Before they’re Batman blockbusters…” Don’t you mean the possessive “their” instead?
“…where he’ll be directed…well…everyone!” Don’t you mean “directing”?
No matter how many set of eyes go over an article, sometimes stuff is missed. Thanks for pointing those out, they’re fixed now.
DC really missed the boat on this one… big time.
Whedon has shown his talent at writing solid, relatable characters (even the ones you don’t like (ie, that you’re not meant to like) are perfectly written.
And if that wasn’t enough, his scripts are a perfect balance of humour / drama / action / thrilling. Who better, really, to write a story based on a comic book series?
This movie would have been brilliant. It would have been on my must watch list. I’ll lament it’s passsing for years to come, especially since no other production will ever be able to compete with a Whedon Wonder Woman.
I think the ultimate problem with Joss Whedon’s Wonder Woman was that from DC and Warner’s perspective, his take was a little more “Whedon” than it was “Wonder Woman”.
Ultimately that’s not a bad thing at all, and some might call it a good thing in fact (depending on what you think of Wonder Woman as a character), but from the perspective of a company trying to stay true to the 60+ year roots of the character, I don’t think it’s what they wanted.
However, I have no doubt the movie would have been phenomenal. I’d still really like to see Whedon adapt his take on Wonder Woman into a comic book at some point. Perhaps he and John Cassaday could reunite and do it for those new “DC: Earth One” Original Graphic Novels they’re doing now? I’d read that…
Oh I’d read the hell out of that.
That would be awesome. Count me in for that one!
I remember following this all through high school and being mad when he and the project parted ways. I’m a huuuuuuuge Whedon fan and I agree with Scott on the phenomenability in this. If you read some of the things that he’s said since then (about why she uses the bracelets comes to mind), it just sounds so well thought out and potentialful. Personally, I REALLY want to read the first draft of this somehow. Badly. Someone should leak it.
What makes me most sad is this film is a casualty of the If-it-stars-a-woman-and-is-an-action-movie-it-won’t-sell mentality of Hollywood. It wasn’t long after this that Warner Brothers announced they were scrapping films with female leads because “they wouldn’t sell”. Which is bogus.
Oh well. At least we’ll get the David E. Kelley version of Wonder Woman. That should be a nice substitute. (It won’t).
I love Whedon, and although I’m not really a comic reader I have fond memories of Wonder Woman from my childhood. I was very disappointed when this fell through.
Whedon would have written the PERFECT wonder woman. His strong feminist themes in his works would have made for a brilliant wonder woman. But alas, it was not meant to be.
A film industry friend says the Wonder Woman script is indeed available. His claim was that is was dreadful…
I’d rather just imagine that it was brilliant.
Did your friend confirm that it was the Whedon script? I know WB purchased another Wonder Woman script shortly after (or before?) ditching Whedon. I believe much of it took place during World War II, and I have no trouble believing it was dreadful.
It’d be interesting if the point of difference between Joss and the Studios was a down-to-earth grounding of the character. Considering that’s pretty much the entire success of Nolan’s Batman franchise.
While I imagine a Whedon WW film would have been amazing and would’ve gotten him into the film world a lot sooner, I don’t know if I could bare to play the “what if” game if it meant losing Dollhouse, Buffy Season 8, Astonishing X-men, and Dr. Horrible. Especially with WB meddling with his scripts from the beginning, I’d wonder how much of his vision would end up in the final film and how much he’d have to compromise. And I’m more of a Marvel guy, anyway, so yay Avengers!