Genre: Comic Book Adaptation/Adventure.
Studio:
Warner Bros? Universal Pictures?
Production Company:
Unknown.
Project Phase: Development Hell.
Who's In It:
Catherine Zeta-Jones (Diana/Wonder Woman, rumored).
Who's Making It:
James R. Harnock, Eve Marie Kazaros (Screenwriters); Ivan Reitman (Producer);
based on the DC Comics character and series Wonder Woman.
Premise: The Amazonian princess-warrior Diana left her lush tropical island to dwell in our urban cityscapes of glass and steel. Tutored in the ways of the Greek warriors, and outfitted with incredible gifts the Goddess bestowed upon her people, she becomes Paradise Island's emissary to civilization.
Release Date: Unknown.
Comments: For a long time the golden age-era Wonder Woman comic book character was often considered a third-rate superhero. C'mon, be honest: if you were picking your soccer players from the members of the Justice League of America, big guns like Superman and Batman would go first, followed by Green Lantern, The Flash and maybe even Aquaman before Diana got picked.
That's changing these days. Don't expect to see any motherly characteristics these days in the current Wonder Woman comic series: this Diana's been significantly powered up and tends to prefer being on the offense rather than defence. For those unfamiliar with the comic, she's got the presense of Sarah Connor from T2, the stamina of Xena: Warrior Princess and the savage good looks of your dream woman. She doesn't stand behind Batman and Superman these days; she's leading them into battle.
In our humble opinion, any big-screen Wonder Woman movie has to overcome the public's misconception of the character. Along with overcoming any leftover, stereotypical (and sexist) images from the Golden Age adventures, and placing the Lynda Carter television series with the same nolstagic fondness reserved for the Adam West Batman series (it was a different age then, and the movies of today don't tread on the feature Batman films gothic territory), the creators of the Wonder Woman film have some hard work cut out for them. She needs to be brought into the 21st century, made fresh and exciting but also remembering to not throw away the cool bits fans have enjoyed about the character for the past 40 years. But she needs depth, and she needs her Lex Luthor/Joker, her ultimate adversary and greatest challenge. But if the popularity of female action characters like the aforementioned Sarah Connor, Ripley from the Alien movies and TV's Xena are any indication, the time is ripe to make a big-screen Wonder Woman movie become reality.
Rumors: Unknown.
Scoop Feedback:
January 5, 1999... We finally launch CA's Wonder Woman page with a exciting and hot scoop, followed by a call for more information. We were recently scooped by someone the rumor that Universal Pictures is starting up work on a Wonder Woman feature. The scooper said there's no script or plot yet but U. is looking at casting Catherine Zeta-Jones in the lead. ['Darth Smith' told us this, and if there is a God in this universe we pray he makes this come to pass.]
OK, now that the exciting stuff is out of the way, here's the deal: we need more info about this project. We heard back in the early 90s that Ivan Reitman, the director of Stripes, Ghostbusters, Twins and most recently Six Days Seven Nights was somehow involved in a producing capacity with this project. Does anyone know if that's still the case?
Second question: can anyone at Universal or WB confirm or deny their studio's involvement with this project? We assumed that since WB owns DC Comics any Wonder Woman feature would find its home there, but that might not be necessarily the case. Anyone know otherwise?? January 12, 1999... Thanks to one of our readers we're able to provide some more light on this project. "I can confirm that your Wonder Woman info is partly correct. Yes, James R. Harnock and Eve Marie Kazaros are the current screenwriters (after original screenwriter Kimberlee Reed's script was rejected), yes, Ivan Reitman is the producer (not executive producer) and Catherine Zeta Jones is being eyed (though she hasn't even been contacted yet; Reitman is simply preparing a list of potential Wonder Woman's), but the project is still at Warner Bros. not Universal. Universal were the producers of the Lynda Carter TV series, but they lost the rights back in the mid-80's. Deborah Joy LeVine was prepping a new TV series last year, but the project fell through. Reitman has been working on a Wonder Woman feature since around 1994/95." [Thanks to 'Fabio2' who scouted Paradise Island for us.]
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