RIP Wonder Woman

6 Comments »

Another project to file under “Nobody Cares”. After Catwomen and Elektra, who in their right mind would invest a nickle to make this movie? All comic fans want from Wonder Woman is an insanely hot chick to wear a skimpy outfit and stand in the background during JLA. The character is certainly iconic, but she just isn’t that interesting.

Comment by MDOC | October 29, 2007

Joel Silver can’t handle a female-driven flick –Nicole Kidman will most likeyl never recover from The Invasion and all the good mojo Jodi Foster got from Flightplan she’s blown with The Brave One.
So this is good news that Silver’s attempt to work his screwy magic on Wonder Woman has to be put on hold for a time. Hopefully his option on the property will expire while it’s on hold, somebody with sense will come in–Joss Whedon perhaps? All of a sudden he’s sounding REAL good to me after what the two headed monster of Miller and Silver and the destruction they have/will wrought.

And yes, Catwoman and Elektra failed, as did Ultraviolet, but Wonder Woman is a name brand character, and doesn’t suffer from the stupidity of Piof on Catwoman or the talentless screenwriters and off-balance direction of Elektra, or the incohrence of the toothless UltraViolet.
A shame that so much is riding on JLA when expectations for that turkey are getting lower by the day.

Comment by JaySmack | October 29, 2007

JaySmack,

Specifically what is it about JLA which leads you to already proclaim it a “turkey”? When all is said and done you may be right but I see:
1) An accomplished director at the helm
2) A script which is reportedly good
3) Not one hero has been casted yet, it sounds like they are going young and cheap but nothings official. X-Men at the time casted young and cheap but it worked.
4) It is live action and there was no truth to the motion capture rumours which would have made JLA a cartoon.
Maybe I’m too optimistic but what am I missing here?

Comment by MDOC | October 30, 2007

Okay, here’s what you’re missing.
First of all I and others gave this film every chance there was –go back through the archives and you will see how I got into freaking wars, on this website no less, because I felt the concept was deserving of patience. This was before ANY details had come out, mind you. I defended it vehemently, but after seeing six months go by with no word of cast and very little of the script it was pretty obvious why the suits were staying so silent –they knew this project was in trouble and realized they didn’t have a handle on their own damned movie.
They’re just NOW getting around to doing some of the casting, and even then they haven’t declared anything –we’ve needed folks like AICN and IESB to have spies getting us rumors on auditions. If it wasn’t for that we’d have NOTHING for information on this film. We’ve all been through the process of watching and following the development of movies enough times to know what’s normal and what aint, and having half a year go by without even telling people who’s supposed to be in such a HUGE movie isn’t normal.
Look at the other posts Matt’s made on this site. Notice how for most of them whenever a movie is greenlit they already have a lead cast? Now look at JLA. Ditto for the script. We already have an idea what Wolverine will nbe about –and it’s official! Now look at JLA.
As for your points:
1.) An accomplished director at the helm? Why not call Michael Bay “accomplished?” George Miller’s ONLY claim to fame is that he directed a couple of Mel Gibson genre-vehicles during the 1980’s, which (in case you were unaware) was the last time he made a movie. A lot has changed since Reagan was president. Sadly, Miller’s sensibilities wasn’t one of them.
A film like this is a like a war -every move must be thought out months in advance, and you HAVE to get it right the first time. This isn’t the kind of flick where you experiment. But that’s exactly what they’re doing. So far they can’t even decide who the freaking principals (Superman, Batman Wonder Woman) are going to be. Worse, they want someone “marketable” and with “name recognition” to play Green Lantern, so they go looking for rappers? A decision that’s already been invalidated since they’re oging to use the Hal Jordan version of Green Lantern for the solo movie –assuming JLA doesn’t kill that project. This movie isn’t being made by filmmakers, it’s being made by the Marketing and Publicity department of Warner Brothers. Movie-by-Committee. We all know how this story ends –total fiasco!
2.)The script is “reportedly good?” Well then, let me go ahead and reserve my early tickets now. This is the first I’ve heard of the script being good. All other descriptions I’ve read have ranged from “uninspired” to “pure sh*t.” And as far as script “quality” goes, I’ve seen mediocre scripts that a good director and strong cast have elevated to great material (Chinatown, SE7EN) I’ve also seen good screenplays that an inapprorpiate director and less-than-stellar cast have reduced to crap (All the King’s Men, Planet of the Apes).
I’ve NEVER seen a script so good that it can make an over-the-hill director (apparently coming out of retirement) and a bunch of unknown/untested kids with almost no expeirence better. This movie won’t buck that trend either.
3.)Where to begin? First of all, X-Men did NOT have “young and cheap” actors, I have no idea where you got that from. And just in passing, considering that JLA is supposed to be a “tentpole” movie for 2009, and is sure to have a budget of over 100-mil, I don’t think the suits are worried about going “cheap.”
As for “young,” with the sole exception of Anna Paquin (age 18 in 2000 when X-Men filmed) all the principals in X-Men were no younger than their late twenties, most of them over thirty –does that sound anywhere near 20 or 17 to you? Hugh Jackman was 32 at the time, Halle Berry 34, Famke Jansen 35. James Marsden was 27 and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos was 28, making them both FAR older than anyone who’s been rumored to be in this JLA flick.
Bryan Singer’s cast were experienced thespians who all had been in ensemble pieces, (even Anna Paquin by the time she was cast as Rogue already had YEARS of acting experience, both as a lead and as a co-star). Now compare that to the rabble of inexperieced kids George Miller has (allegedly) been eyeing, most of which with barely a single acting credit to their name! These kids were chosen solely because of their headshots -they don’t have anything else. And keep in mind, none of them have been confirmed. The casting for this movie should be a slam-dunk, but the studio’s having an awfully hard time making up their minds, aren’t they? I’ve explained why this is in an earlier post.
There’s no rhyme or reason behind the people allegedly cast thus far. You can’t build a franchise around any of these folks. They have no dramatic depth (with only two credits to your name, both roles as secondary characters, how can you?) or group chemistry.
In an earlier post I listed what would have been my dream cast: Matthew Fox (Superman) Scott Caan (Batman) Kate Beckinsale (Wonder Woman –with Rhona Mitra as an alternate if Kate demands a penny over five mil, cause she AIN’T worth that much, not yet anyway) Ryan Reynolds (Flash) David Harewood (Green Lantern) and Clancy Brown as the Martian Manhunter. My villain of choice would have been Darkseid (played by the mammoth but talented Nathan Jones with Christopher Lee doing the voice) and his henchmen would be guys like Steppenwolf etc, who can be played by anyone really.
Now there’s a cast who doesn’t break your bank (20 mil tops, which is acutally cheap for an A-list cast of this quality, and in fact cheaper than what Fox paid for Bryan Singer’s X-Men cast) but most of all they’re solid actors who can carry their parts –people you can build a franchise around without having to wait for them to “grow into the roles.” People who can carry their own solo movies, which is exactly what Warner’s plans to do, though it seems they’re already screwing that up with the decisions they’ve made in this flick –see Green Lantern.

And another reason you don’t want a bunch of unknown kids: JLA, in my view, gives itself the BEST chance when it presents itself as a “Team B.” In other words, if you had the chance to choose a good Superman this time instead of Brandon Routh, who would you choose? If you got the chance to choose a Batman who didn’t sound like a growling dog (I hate Bale’s speaking voice as is, especially the lisp, and his “Batman” voice is laugh-out-loud atrocious!) who would you choose etc? This should be the “bigger than life” superhero cast, with the kind of glamour (yes, I said “glamour”) that Nolan and Singer can’t do in their movies, since solo movies require more character development. This should be a flick based on unabashed spectacle and over-the-top action. Like 300 it should be a visual feast, heavy on plot and eye-candy and low on character-building, and that starts with the cast.
They really could have gone some places with this JLA casting, and I had my heart set on them at least getting some of their moves right, but so far they haven’t done ANYTHING right and are doing everything wrong.
Having a 20 year-old as Wonder Woman may play to the pedophiliac fantasies of a geriatric pervert like George Miller but in the real world she’s a terrible choice.
4.) I have no idea what this point is about.
Now, am I being overly pessimistic, or have I missed something here?

P.S. considering that JLA has so many other potential franchises depending on it’s success, (and that if it sucks it will crash all of them) doesn’t it behoove WB to make sure they get it right? So far they seem dazed and confused. That’s why this flick’s a “turkey” in the making.

Comment by JaySmack | October 30, 2007

OK, I get where your coming from. Don’t forget Miller did direct Babe Pig in the City, which isn’t something I have seen but it was critically loved and took some skill.
I agree that if they cast too young early 20s or (gasp) teens, the movie may be officially written off as tripe. WB will probably go late 20s, early 30’s which I consider “young”. I call X-Men’s casting “young and cheap” because there were no older names (remember the Clint Eastwood as Wolverine rumour/fan dream casting). I’m not looking to get into a “in 1999 Halle Berry was as star” debate, but she wasn’t.
I agree Matthew Fox would make a great Superman.
You may end up being right and you have your reasons for being so negative. I’m holding out hope. We don’t have the exact same tastes, you despised Transformers, I gave it a pass.

Comment by MDOC | October 31, 2007

If JLA turns out to be good in spite of all the missteps I’ll GLADLY eat crow! NOBODY –and I mean No-freaking-BODY– wants to be wrong about JLA more than me. I pray that maybe there’s some kind of hidden genius buried deep in all this that maybe I’m too orthodox and narrow in my thinking to see. But this movie is about a bunch of folks running around in skin-tight spandex, it’s not War & Peace or a Farewell to Arms. If it looks like they’re getting it wrong from JumpStreet, chances are that they are.

To be fair though, I’m VERY picky about casting –especially superhero movies– either I love the person cast or I despise them, seldom do I not feel strongly one way or the other. I thought Bryan Singer screwed up royally casting Ian McKellen as Magneto -my choice would have been Everett McGill (Dune, Under Siege 2) or Rutger Hauer, but I’ll admit, in X-Men 2 when he looks at Pyro and says, “You’re a god among insects,” nobody on the planet, past or present, could have done it better than Sir Ian. But that’s not enough to justify putting him in the franchise. Too many directors make casting choices for the wrong reasons. Jonathan Mostow casting Kristianna Loken and Nick Stahl in Terminator 3 because one was hot and the other was his friend. Directors like that ruin cinema.

For me I see what this film has the potential to be, an awesome spectacle-for-spectacle’s-sake thrill ride and I see all that being pissed away.
For once, and I never thought I’d EVER say this!- but I wish Michael Bay was producing this film, maybe even directing, so at least I know Ben Affleck would be Superman (when Bay was briefly -VERY briefly- considered to direct a Superman flick in 1998 after the massive success of Armegeddon he said Affleck would have been his choice) and there would be some talentless but hot babe who acutally looks like a goddess, instead of a pedophile’s fantasy as Wonder Woman.

…and no doubt in Bay’s hands Snoop Dogg would be cast as Green Lantern. God, I hate Hollywood!

Comment by JaySmack | October 31, 2007

Leave a comment