Patty Jenkins has been tapped to direct Wonder Woman. She was originally set to direct Thor 2, but dropped out after creative differences with Marvel.
Six months after teaming up with Warner Bros. to helm their upcoming live-action film Wonder Woman, Michelle MacLaren left the project less than 48 hours ago. Now, it looks like Patty Jenkins will be taking over the project.
Warner Bros. moved pretty quickly as they planned on keeping the same shooting schedule, and it’s almost a bit surprising that they went with the one female director who was set to direct a Marvel film, but would later leave the project because of the same reason MacLaren left the Wonder Woman film.
We’re still processing this situation, as it’s a bit unique, and we’re interested to see how this all pans out. Jenkins is a great film director, who directed Monster, the indie film which won Charlize Theron an Academy Award for Best Actor.
It’ll be interesting to watch if Patty Jenkins has any “creative differences” while working with WB on Wonder Woman, which will star Gal Gadot as the first female superhero lead. Gadot will have at least a cameo in Batman v Superman, which we’ll be seeing the first trailer for in the next few days.
There’s been a lot of controversy surrounding this project, as it was the first female superhero solo film, which was also being directed by a female director. But, now it’s just another talented female director who has nabbed the directing job.
In all honesty, this writer would have loved to have seen Michelle MacLaren’s take on the film, as she directed some of the best Breaking Bad episodes ever. She also directed some Walking Dead episodes, as well as four Game of Thrones episodes, so we were excited to see what she could do with a superhero-sized movie budget, but Jenkins is certainly a worthy replacement.
Wonder Woman is set to hit theaters in 2017, so the studio probably didn’t want to waste too much time, considering they spent six months with MacLaren helming the project, but this is definitely surprising. We hope it isn’t a knee jerk reaction to concerns as to whether WB felt a female director could bring their vision of Wonder Woman to the big screen, but we doubt it is, as Jenkins is just as talented, with her start coming from The Killing.
In case any fans missed it, the official announcement from Warner Bros. about parting ways with Michelle MacLaren said, “Given creative differences, Warner Bros. and Michelle MacLaren have decided not to move forward with plans to develop and direct ‘Wonder Woman’ together.”
This is normally the generic way of saying the studio and the director didn’t want to make the same movie, and now that Wonder Woman will be part of Justice League, it may prove difficult to find someone who is willing to make their own film, while allowing the studio to keep their hands all over the project.
We hope Patty Jenkins is able to jump right in and help create an incredible Wonder Woman film, as we think Gal Gadot will do an excellent job as the first major female superhero to see the big screen in their own solo film.