Filmmaker Patty Jenkins will serve as the director for the Wonder Woman film adaptation.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jenkins “will now become the first female director to handle a big project in Warner’s developing DC universe.” The executives at Warner Bros. had to scramble to replace the original director, Michelle MacLaren, who dropped out due to “creative differences.”
Actress Gal Gadot, who plays the Amazon princess in the Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice movie, has signed on to reprise the role for this project. The theatrical release date has been scheduled for 2017. (via Forbes.com)
As one female-fronted superhero film begins to get its building blocks into place, another one hits a big snag.
In the first of two reports from THR, Marvel Studios is negotiating with screenwriters Nicole Perlman (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Meg LeFauve (Inside Out) to pair up for their 2018 release Captain Marvel.
Perlman became a hot name in Hollywood after the massive success of Guardians, and holds the distinction of being Marvel’s first female screenwriter. LeFauve’s Inside Out is also being held as the next great hope in reviving the somewhat sagging critical response that Pixar films have received in the past few years.
Apparently, they had two different takes on Carol Danvers big debut, but Kevin Feige was so taken with them both that he thought they should team up on the final script. No director has been attached as of yet, but Marvel has been making a concerted effort to find a female filmmaker.
Perlman is repped by CAA and Management 360, LeFauve by Verve. Captain Marvel is scheduled to be released on July 6, 2018.
Sadly, it isn’t all good news this evening, as it was just announced that Michelle MacLaren (Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones) has left Wonder Woman over “creative differences”.
MacLaren’s involvement was easily one of the more exciting developments of the Warner Bros/DC film slate. The film is still scheduled to be released in 2017, so there’s still time to get another filmmaker in place, but it’s hard to not be reminded of the Patti Jenkins situation with Thor: The Dark World and the poor results that eventually produced with Alan Taylor at the helm.
Hopefully Warner Bros will be able to course correct. Some have suggested that perhaps MacLaren should jump ship and helm Captain Marvel, but the truth of the matter is, a filmmaker looking for creative freedom probably should avoid big tentpole superhero films altogether.
It’s Oscar Eve! I’ll toss out a few Oscar Predictions towards the bottom of today’s round-up, but let’s get to what’s making headlines today in the world of comics-based entertainment.
– In a piece about a possible future Gal Gadot project, Deadline has reported that the actress will begin filming Wonder Woman in the fall. If that’s indeed the case, the never quite made official release date of June 23rd, 2017 sounds pretty likely to be met for the Michelle MacLaren production.
– The official Daredevil Netflix series twitter feed teased out the following photo yesterday:
The indication being that Daredevil’s father Jack Murdock fought The Absorbing Man at some point in the series’ history. Though, depending on the age that Creel is portrayed as, this could present a bit of a continuity issue since Creel appeared as an adversary of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. team during the first few episodes of this current season. Perhaps his power keeps him from aging?
– Sons of Anarchy star Kim Coates has been cast as the lead in the upcoming feature film adaptation of Officer Downe, based on the Image comic by Joe Casey and Chris Burnham. Officer Downe will mark the directorial debut of Shawn Crahan aka Clown, co-founder of the metal act Slipknot, while Casey is penning the script.
– And finally, Supergirl now has a matriarchal figure for Melissa Benoist‘s Kara, as Nashville‘s Laura Benanti has signed on to play Alura Zor-El. Alura will be a recurring role in the series, offering her daughter guidance that echoes through space and time.
While Torsten will have a much better and comprehensive write-up on The Beat shortly, for whatever it’s worth, here are my Oscar predictions for tomorrow night in the major categories.:
Best Picture: Birdman
Best Director: Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Best Actor: Michael Keaton, Birdman
Best Actress: Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Best Original Screenplay: Wes Anderson and Hugo Guinness, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Adapted Screenplay: Damien Chazelle, Whiplash (no guts, no glory over here!)
Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, Birdman
Best Editing: Sandra Adair, Boyhood
Jason Fuchs, the screenwriter behind the Pan movie, may be scripting the Wonder Woman film adaptation.
Gal Gadot, the actress who plays the Amazonian princess in Batman Vs. Supermam flick, will reprise the role for this project. Michelle MacLaren will serve as the director.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, this character is “one of the most important installments of Warners’ cinematic universe based on the DC Entertainment characters and one of the most iconic characters in comic book history.” A theatrical release date has been set for 2017.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Great Hera! Variety has reported that Michelle Maclaren will direct Warner Bros’ “Wonder Woman” standalone motion picture. There’s still a lot we don’t know about the film aside from the fact that Gal Gadot will star as Princess Diana of Themyscira, and Charles Roven is a producer.
Maclaren is known for her work on AMC’s “The Walking Dead”, the Emmy award winning series “Breaking Bad”, and HBO’s “Game of Thrones”. Looks like Maclaren has over 20 years experience in Hollywood, so this feels like a really, really choice.
Here’s a video of Maclaren at work on the “Breaking Bad” set (FYI, spoiler alert):
“Wonder Woman” is set to hit theaters some time in 2017.
(H/T: Variety)
” … but the truth of the matter is, a filmmaker looking for creative freedom probably should avoid big tentpole superhero films altogether.”
Quite true. As someone tweeted today, the superhero-movie strategy seems to be: “Hire interesting director to build buzz, then fire director to maintain control.”
Of as film critic Matt Zoller Seitz said: “The James Bond films and the Marvel films have the same kind of director problem. Producers want a little personality but not too much.”
The ideal superhero director is someone who is content to make sure the actors hit their marks and speak their lines clearly, and that’s all. Not someone who gets involved in the creative aspects. In other words, a 1960s or ’70s TV director.
This is good news! I suspect Jenkins will be just what the movie needs.