Variety’s Anne Thompson follows up on the recent report that studio head Jeff Robinov had ordered producers to not even bother turning in projects with female leads. Unsurprisingly, Warners has denied the story rather vigorously, and along the way even claims they still have a WONDER WOMAN movie in development:
Female superheroes are prominent in two upcoming Warners comicbook actioners. Wonder Woman joins the male ensemble in DC’s “The Justice League” and Silk Spectre leads Alan Moore’s “Watchmen.” Female co-stars figure in both “Speed Racer” and “Get Smart.” And Robinov is still seeking the right script and star for a “Wonder Woman” feature, which has been in development for a decade.
Poor execution and bad timing at the end of the most recent horror cycle were part of the poor reception for the horrorific “The Reaping” and “The Invasion,” which both Kidman and co-star Daniel Craig refused to promote. As for Neil Jordan’s brainy twist on the vigilante genre, “The Brave One,” Robinov said he is “proud of the movie,” which Foster continues to support around the world. “It’s tricky,” he said. “It may have been too rough for women, and we didn’t get the reviews we had expected.”
A snarkster might note that neither WATCHMEN nor JLA will feature a female lead, but seemingly sidekicks and love interests will always be allowable, or at least we hope so.
That was a pretty week try at covering there butts, if you ask me. I think they know that the damage has already been done. The next question one might ask is, “Do they care?” Only as far as their pocket books will get set back.
Crazy Idea #2007.1654 : An Earth where only the women have super powers! Either: vigilantes are male (like batman) or you get superman arriving from another planet and messing up the gene pool, or you have transgendered individuals exploring identity issues, both secret and closetted.
how active are the heroes in worldly affairs? what about female offspring of heroes who don’t have the “dominant” gene and must lead normal lives?
“Wonder Woman joins the male ensemble in DC’s “The Justice League” and Silk Spectre leads Alan Moore’s “Watchmen.” Female co-stars figure in both “Speed Racer” and “Get Smart.”
I’m glad this was more smoke than fire… however, the above statement still lacks credibility until they get a real female lead film, and not a list of co-stars in hero *team* films. Get a Tomb Raider / Ripley / Kill BIll / Underworld / Resident Evil, or something going for WB. We want Wonder Woman! It is that simple.
The problem is, once the “girls who kickass” stories are made into popcorn fare styled movies, the lead heroine ends up pretty much like an alpha male hero with a shapely body. As tempting as that might sound, you might as well end up putting a guy in the role because the box office is bigger. Plenty of exceptions, but you can’t guarantee any one movie will be that exception.
The bit with “Get Smart” having a female action co-star is true, but I’m not sure that’s going to be a huge success story. The “Speed Racer” movie looks to be a huge mistake, but the cars in that could save the day — but certainly not the female co-star there.
The comic book movie with the female draw should end up being “The Spirit” if I don’t miss my guess. I’m pleasantly surprised with how this has come about.
Comments are closed.