Wonder Woman Loses Director Because of "Creative Differences"

[StewShearerOld]

Wonder Woman Loses Director Because of "Creative Differences"

Michelle MacLaren will no longer direct DC and Warner Bros' Wonder Woman movie.

Poor Wonder Woman. She might be one of the most important superheroes in comics but in the movie world it seems like she just can't catch a break. First, instead of giving her a proper introduction in her own movie, Warner Bros. decided to give her a big screen debut as a side character in a flick headlined by Batman and Superman. Now, after finally receiving her own <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/138059-DC-Announces-Wonder-Woman-Green-Lantern-6-Other-Films-Through-2020>solo film project, the comic book world's most famous heroine has lost her director.

In announcement yesterday, Warner Bros. confirmed that director Michelle MacLaren has left Wonder Woman. When asked about the cause of MacLaren's departure, the company cited "creative differences" as the primary reason. "Given creative differences, Warner Bros. and Michelle MacLaren have decided not to move forward with plans to develop and direct Wonder Woman together," it said in a statement. As of right now, MacLaren has offered no personal comments as to whether or not Warner Bros' explanation is accurate.

MacLaren's departure is likely to leave some disappointed. A veteran of television series such as Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead, MacLaren was chosen after on June 23rd, 2017.

Source: <a href=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/wonder-woman-movie-loses-director-788500>The Hollywood Reporter

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[Marter]

Time to hire Marjane Satrapi for the job.

At least, she's my pick. And, yes, only because The Voices is amazing.

 

[FPLOON]

http://pinkie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw8181-1348961216188.gif

But seriously, now who's going to direct the badass female superhero from DC?

Time to hire Marjane Satrapi for the job.

At least, she's my pick. And, yes, only because The Voices is amazing.

Wait... Is she doing anything at the moment? If not, then she has my vote...

 

[Kenjitsuka]

Well, I hope the best person for the job will end up making it. Whatever gender etc. that person might have...
But so far tons of people declined or walked out, right? So... that's shitty

 

[K.ur]

Would be Lana Wachowski kinda cheating on the woman criteria? At least i'm sure she would get somewhat more freedom than others.

 

[SquidVicious]

Alright Warner Bros./ DC, you want to fix this you need to let Kathryn Bigelow do whatever she wants and I guarantee you the resulting product will bring you nothing but goodwill and accolades.

 

[Albino Boo]

Time to hire Marjane Satrapi for the job.

At least, she's my pick. And, yes, only because The Voices is amazing.

Unfortunately I don't see Warner Bros hiring a French arthouse film maker. If they did it would probably be the maddest decision since Dino De Laurentiis hired David Lynch to make Dune.

The one person who I do think is in with an outside chance is Sam Taylor-Johnson. After 50 shades she has a track record with a big budget.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Development Hell awaits!

Now we just have to wait for the news of script rewrites, bizarre casting choices, nonsense comic continuity retcons and eventually the half-arsed release to a luke-warm audience of a convoluted mess long after the current Superhero boom has gone stale.

Well done DC, you've done it again!

 

[Callate]

Cue rampant speculation! Y-ay!

...I sure wouldn't want the job. Part of the potential audience is going to claim to hate the result no matter what, part of it is going to claim to love it no matter what, and part of it is going to be deeply disappointed that the result doesn't fit the images and/or hit the cultural and symbolic milestones in their head.

And all of that before you get the burdens of WB/DC's mixed reputation with superhero franchises and their expectations that this will be part of the foundation of a Marvel-level continuity. And the uncertain success of BvsoJ.

But, hey, you're only going to be the figurehead that damns female directors' chances of heading major action franchises and female-led action blockbusters for another decade! No pressure!

 

[blackrave]

Any info on what exactly happened?

 

[Alpha Maeko]

"Okay, her costume is gonna get more slutty in the standalone film."

"Um... no. It's fine the way it is."

"YOURE FIRED."

---

I dunno. I'm just speculating O:

 

[Zontar]

Development Hell awaits!

Now we just have to wait for the news of script rewrites, bizarre casting choices, nonsense comic continuity retcons and eventually the half-arsed release to a luke-warm audience of a convoluted mess long after the current Superhero boom has gone stale.

It went stale a few years ago, that's the reason why Sony's reboot of Spider-Man failed, why DC hasn't managed to make something in the past 10 years that wasn't Batman work, and why Fox almost had the X-men franchise fail before Days of Future Past saved the whole thing.

Marvel has managed to prevent their movies from falling into the same trap by defying conventional wisdom in regards to superhero movies and have theirs be anything but the typical image of a superhero film, what was once a genre of film onto itself now becoming only a piece of the puzzle. They've managed to succeed where no one else has (or seems to be going to in the future) because they don't treat their movies as superhero movies, just normal movies with character who happen to have superpowers. Doesn't sound like much of a difference, but it's why movies like Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: The Winter Soldier are the result instead of Meh of Steel and Green Lantern.

 

[Coreless]

"Okay, her costume is gonna get more slutty in the standalone film."

"Um... no. It's fine the way it is."

"YOURE FIRED."

---

I dunno. I'm just speculating O:

Just looking at her directing history in TV it has been overwhelmingly drama shows and movies, I'm getting the feeling she probably wanted to make something closer to Breaking Bad and Warner Bros just wasn't going to have that. They most likely want something to compete with Marvel so they started taking away her freedom to do what she wanted so she bailed, this movie is already looking to be a career ender if not pulled off correctly so she probably did the right thing.

 

[MonsterCrit]

Well, I hope the best person for the job will end up making it. Whatever gender etc. that person might have...
But so far tons of people declined or walked out, right? So... that's shitty

And this is the point many people seem to miss. Best person regardless of gender. I'm all for promoting the double XX's but seriously, giving favouritism and preference is no less sexist than being discriminatory.

Who says you have to be a woman to direct a great wonder woman movie? That's like saying you have to be a man to direct a porno movie or an asian to direct a kung fu movie or french to... okay forget about the french.

 

[AkatsukiLeader13]

Wow... Anyone else starting to think this might turn out to be as bad as PANTS TO BE DARKENED aka the terrible, terrible Wonder Woman TV pilot.

 

[Abomination]

Who says you have to be a woman to direct a great wonder woman movie?

I am left scratching my head about this one. It's a comic book movie and at the moment male directors on average have far more experience with that type of film, especially such a risky one.

I don't even see why there would be so much controversy around the character, she's a fictional person from an island of warrior women. Any behavior she exhibits wouldn't' be because she's female but because she's from a hyper-military, Hellenistic, isolationist culture.

Wonder Woman could be a man and would STILL behave the same because she's a demigod before any other aspect.

 

[flying_whimsy]

Anyone remember how the last Wonder Woman movie died? Superman Returns killed it and if I recall correctly, they had the same director lined up that would go on to do the Avengers.

I am so curious as to what the creative differences were, and if it looked anything like that infamous 'mansplaining' scene from the recent wonder woman comics.

 

[Virtual Boy]

This movie is going to end up being a no win scenario for whoever ends up making it. It's gonna be impossible to appease everyone and cause controversy no matter how the final project comes out.

 

[Lightknight]

At this point, maybe DC could get Marvel to produce their movies?

I'm not going to see it. They are actually boasting about their sexual discrimination like it's a good thing (hiring a female to play a female role in a movie is not deemed sexual discrimination, hiring an employee purely because they're a desired sex is).

Besides, Wonder Woman has always been a terrible pick to round out the triumvirate. DC really needs to get a different heroine in the spotlight that isn't miss bondage with a boomerang tiara, bullet proof bracelets and a lasso. That may have flown in the 50s but now?

 

[Therumancer]

The problem is that Wonder Woman at it's core is a real "feminist" work as opposed to what passes for feminism nowadays. Those who argue feminism today increasingly refer to real "feminism" as "first wave" feminism and then try and do away with everything it established. A lot of people claiming to be feminists nowadays will sit there and complain about "cheesecake" and "women in peril" without understanding exactly how those things are actually empowering and how long and hard women had to strive to achieve that, and what's more the right to appear that way without criticism from either men OR other women was one of the key elements of real feminism. Things like Playboy which are currently attacked were actually feminist publications.

If you go back and read about the dude who created Wonder Woman you'd learn some interesting facts about him, including the fact that he was a believe in female superiority apparently. Wonder Woman was created as a bi-sexual (but tending to prefer women in an absolute sense despite experimenting with and loving some men) bondage pin up acting as a super heroine... and I mean this literally, she's even referred to as a "Sappho" directly in her own comic books, especially early on, and it's made clear bondage is a form of play for the Amazons and she enjoys both the dominant and submissive positions (seriously people have filled entire galleries with making this point). The overall point of Wonder Woman was sort of that she could be strong AND vulnerable at the same time, and that being cheesecake did not make her in any way weak, while she frequently found herself tied up and something large and phallic either between her legs or rushing towards that sweetest of spots (oftentimes using a perspective gag) she always winds up turning the tables.

That's the problem with the character nowadays is that even with all of the evolution that's still a big part of Wonder Woman's key identity and concept, when you read about her creator you'll "get" the character in a way you probably otherwise wouldn't. She's supposed to be soft and strong at the same time, tough, yet vulnerable in that toughness, and always wearing sex appeal as both a defense and a weapon. Today writers, and this includes comic writers who don't get her sadly enough, want to turn her into more of a feminist storm trooper (and frankly it seems almost every super heroine who isn't some variation of one gets crap), yet in doing so they really damage the character and believe it or not make it increasingly shallow because half the point was that while Wonder Woman seemed shallow it really wasn't, and as silly as a lot of it was, she actually carried a lot more mythology and backstory than a lot of other similar super heroes, especially from her era.

I could easily see some creative differences, especially with a director, if someone was told they wanted to capture the essence of the character which lead to them coming in expecting to be doing a character who is a ball crushing modern feminist, like a more butt kicking version of Super Man, and then told that the script involved her making out with other hot girls and acting like she enjoys being tied up despite her protests before inevitably escaping. A modern feminist does not in any way get what real feminism is or how that is a PART of it, and that it exists as an important counterpoint to the butt kicking especially with this character.

As far as doing an entire back story with Wonder Woman I can see why they might want to introduce her and then slowly develop that through the back story. DC seems to be still trying to get it's groove going for the power level of their universe. How advanced the civilization Wonder Woman hails from (and writing out that bit is also a problem) actually is can be a problem since it's harder to gloss over certain details in these cinematic universes than it is with comics. Not to mention the role they want magic to play. The original back story for example heavily ties the origins of the Amazons and their attitudes into Hercules (as in the greek hero) being a giant douchebag. What's more if they are bringing it two of the bigger technological characters like Batman and Lex Luthor and want them to see grounded yet able to be a credible threat/challenge for Superman, giving the Amazons access to technology that seems like it would have made Zod envious isn't likely to work since both Lex and Batman are supposed to be credible threats to Wonder Woman and her people when the chips are down (Batman has had some back and forth with Wonder Woman... like he has with everyone, in various incarnations through the past, neither she or her island can just laugh him and his gizmos off, and Lex had brought everyone including her island to their knees their knees many times over the years in various media, he's one of the greatest super villains of all time for a reason).