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Wonder Woman coming to TV


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Lady_Satine
Title: Head of Lexian R&D
Joined: Oct 15 2005
Location: Metro area, Georgia
PostPosted: Oct 05 2010 05:42 am Reply with quote Back to top

Deadline.com:

This has to be the highest-profile effort to bring Wonder Woman to television: One of TV's best-known creators, The Practice's David E. Kelley, has come on board to write and produce a new series project about the female superhero. The project, from Warner Bros Television where Kelley is based, and Warner Bros' DC Entertainment, will be taken out to the networks shortly. Kelley, who has created several female centered shows like Ally McBeal, has wanted to tackle a contemporary take on the World War II-era Amazon. He recently met with the DC team who also have been looking for ways to launch a new Wonder Woman TV franchise.

The comic book Wonder Woman character has evolved significantly since she first appeared in a 1941 issue of All Star Comics and recently underwent a controversial makeover. Details on Kelley's TV series are being kept under wraps, and it is not clear if the new Wonder Woman aka Diana Prince will be the old familiar Wonder Woman or the redesigned reboot announced with great fanfare this year by DC Comics Co-Publisher Jim Lee that looks like she's ready for Goth Day at the Galleria. (DC Comics Has Ruined Wonder Woman!) Or whether she'll keep her signature powers and weapons, including her Lasso of Truth, her indestructible bracelets, her tiara and her invisible airplane.

Wonder Woman has presented a challenge both for feature and TV creators. That's probably because she is the most famous female superhero in the testosterone-dominated comic world. And because she also is a big feminist icon. The most successful screen adaptation of the Wonder Woman comic books was the TV series The New Adventures of Wonder Woman starring Lynda Carter in the title role, which aired from 1975-1979, first on ABC and then on CBS. Carter has since become synonymous with the character. That will certainly present a challenge in casting the role if the project goes to pilot.

On the feature side, a Wonder Woman film has been in development hell for a decade at Warner Bros, with Joss Whedon at one point attached to write and direct for producer Joel Silver. In May, Warner chairman and CEO Barry Meyer confirmed that a new Wonder Woman feature is in development. There has been a concerted effort on part of Time Warner lately to better mine the DC properties across different platforms. The film division is expected to announce a slate of DC movies by the end of the year that would probably include Wonder Woman.

Warner Bros TV has brought DC characters to the small screen before: most recently with the CW's Superman-themed Smallville, which is in its 10th and final season, and Fox's Human Target, which returned for a second season. A notable recent effort to launch a new Wonder Woman series came a decade ago with Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman creator Deborah Joy LeVine as the writer.

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Aaron Schwartz's thoughts on the matter:
"The problem with bringing Wonder Woman to a modern audience seems to have several facets:

1. Her origin: Retconned several times, the current one seems to be the "clay statue brought to life on Paradise Island" version, which might be hard to sell to a TV audience.
2. Her powers: See #1. These have been all over the map, from being some kind of "brain energy" to Amazon training to blessings of the Gods.
3. Her outfit: While her iconic costume from every animated series to the present works in comics, it's a little hard to portray seriously in live action. The latest revamp to her comic book costume is more realistic, but I'm guessing fans would probably make derisive comments similar to the ones about Clark Kent's outfit in "Smallville." Speaking of his outfit, who thought the textured jacket was a good idea? If it's not a crass merchandising attempt, one would think Clark was a huge "Thriller" fan or something.
4. How much DC will be in her world: Superheroes are easier to buy into if they're not the only one around, especially ones that are supposed to be pretty overt in how they fight crime. Wonder Woman didn't slink out of the shadows, kick bad guys into next week, and then sneak away so nobody saw her do it.

So I'm figuring that they'll probably make the first season about how Diana Prince gets her powers and/or devices, which makes the audience invested in the whole package rather than just trying to get everyone to swallow bracelets, lasso, tiara, etc. in one go. As for her origins, I think they have to include Themyscira and the Amazons somehow. It would also give the showrunners some convenient villains from mythology for Diana to fight, until she grabs one or two DCU villains (I hope) to become her nemeses. It would also be nice if they explored a romance with a certain millionaire from Gotham, but involving Batman in any TV show seems about as easy as getting Time-Warner and Sony to agree to film a "Superman meets Spider-Man" movie, so I'm not holding my breath."


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SoldierHawk
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Title: Warrior-Poet
Joined: Jan 15 2009
Location: San Diego, CA
PostPosted: Oct 06 2010 12:41 am Reply with quote Back to top

Semi-excited about this. I'm a *huge* WW fan, so on the one hand its awesome. On the other hand, it would be so easy for something like this to crash and burn that I'm afraid to get my hopes up.

Just please, if they do nothing else right, let them cast someone who can actually ACT for Diana's part. I want someone who'll get the job because of talent, not because of appearance or rack size.


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William Shakespeare wrote:
Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.

 
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