A wee bit more gossip has emerged about director Michelle MacLaren departing the Wonder Woman movie, courtesy of Badass Digest:

The official reason for her leaving is ‘creative differences,’ and that seems legit according to the scuttlebutt that has reached me. MacLaren and Warner Bros couldn’t agree on anything – including what time period to set the movie. More than that, MacLaren had some very particular visions for the film, visions that maybe would have alienated fandom. Although perhaps Diana having a tiger sidekick/pet she could talk with would have appealed to people more than I expect. 

As of now it seems like Wonder Woman is still on for a 2017 release – which means they need to get a director in there soon. I don’t even know if any of the stuff they developed with MacLaren, storywise, will last. It’s quite possible that whoever comes on next will start from scratch – or will basically take orders from Zack Snyder, who could be shaping up to be the driving creative force behind the DC Movieverse.


So basically with a tight-for-a-blockbuster two years out schedule, they STILL HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO DO WITH WONDER WOMAN. Talking raccoons—no problem. A test pilot who gets a glowing green mask—think of the possibilities. A guy who shrinks down to the size of an ant—the kids will love it. A guy who got frightened by a bat in a cave—worldwide box office records. Woman who fights evil….hm…boy…jeez, that’s a tough one.

Now, I seem to recall that Golden Age Wonder Woman had a lot of female sidekicks, but I don’t know if she had a tiger pal. I know she FOUGHT a tiger.

Brave_and_the_Bold_v.1_131.jpg

And she fought someone named TIGRA.

29.jpg

31.jpg

Most people think tigers are cool and would love to have a tiger for a sidekick as long as it was friendly. (“Don’t hurt Manticore, he’s a good cat.”) I have no objection to Wonder Woman having an animal companion, and it would make for some sweet t-shirts. But…shouldn’t we be a little further along in actually defining this story for the DC Cinematic Universe?

Zack Snyder, can you please take some time out from lifting 400 lbs and rescue us?

BscUvGZIQAEh8Vl.jpg

MacLaren is not the first female director to leave a superhero film. Patti Jenkins was slated to direct Thor II but then had…creative differences. To be fair, that also happened to Edgar Wright, so make of that what you will. To date Lexi Alexander remains the only woman to direct a superhero film, with the low grossing but cult favorite Punisher: War Zone. If you want to see some real fireworks, just follow Alexander—who was a world champion in point fighting and karate before she took up directing—on her Twitter feed. You’ll get an earful.

Also if you think about it, movie directors—like orchestra conductors—are expected to be tempestuous/oddball, opinionated people who have grandiose visions and do it THEIR WAY—Oliver Stone, Wes Anderson, David O. Russell, Howard Hawkes, the list goes on and on and on. Those same qualities in a woman are usually defined as “being a crazy bitch.” You just can’t win.

17 COMMENTS

  1. Also, I would argue not only does the tiger sidekick sound like a terrible idea poised more for a Beastmaster remake than a Wonder Woman movie, but it shows not that no one knows what to do with Wonder Woman, but that this director didn’t know and the studio is much more aware how important this movie is to get right.

  2. Do your research and not just copy content from other people’s erronous articles. Badass Digest making the claim is bad enough – but they provide ZERO proof that there is anything to their claim. You just copy and pasting their wording is even worse. No one has said that MacLaren wanted WW to have a pet tiger. Just that there were creative differences. Showing panels from the characters nearly 75 year run, where she appears alongside tigers isn’t proof – especially without context and the fact that her name nemesis has a cat theme.

  3. She needs to be a Warrior, no Tigers, no talking to animals. She is the equal to Hercules now as she is the daughter of Zeus.

  4. I don’t get why this character is so hard for them to interpret. All the hard work is already done. Just read George Perez’s run, turn that into a movie, and watch the money pour in.

  5. The problem is probably that Wonder Woman’s theme is too complicated and diffuse.
    Hence all these different takes. Batman and Superman are relatively straightforward in comparison.

  6. “No one has said that MacLaren wanted WW to have a pet tiger.”

    Actually, George, someone clearly did say this. Whether or not it’s factual is a completely separate argument.

    Heidi clearly noted this quote as gossip. I don’t see any problem with that. If you want more facts, please feel free to do the research yourself and then start your own blog to post it on.

  7. The only thing I could think is that they where trying to somehow connect Black Adam/Shazam and Wonder Woman with a Tawky Tawny connection.

  8. “Zack Snyder, who could be shaping up to be the driving creative force behind the DC Movieverse…”

    Whatta revoltin’ development this is.

  9. I’m reminded of the joke about creative differences: “I was creative. They were different.”

    Heidi MacDonald said: “So basically with a tight-for-a-blockbuster two years out schedule, they STILL HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO DO WITH WONDER WOMAN.”

    To be fair, DC’s comic book writers and editors have had no idea what to do with Wonder Woman for much of the character’s history. Check out the debacle that was Robert Kanigher’s 21-year stint as editor and chief writer. Aside from William Marston and George Perez, few DC writers have known how to handle the character. As Ray-El said, the Perez issues are virtual storyboards for a movie.

    And here’s another thought: Look at Michelle Rodriguez’s butt-kicking character in the FAST AND FURIOUS movies. Maybe DC should hire the screenwriter of those movies, and director James Wan or Justin Lin, and turn them loose on a female superhero movie.

    BTW, I’m not the same “George” who posted above.

  10. I, for one, really enjoyed the Azzarello-Chiang run better than any other tenure I’ve tried out. I’d be a-okay if that’s the inspiration for the film.

  11. Yet DC Animated had no problem knocking out an amazing Wonder Woman movie. I think in general that Warner Brothers has no Kevin Feign kind of producer guiding anything. They have Zack Snyder but it still seems like the execs are involved but don’t know what they are doing. Every time they have been successful, it seems to be more WB getting lucky at having a strong creative force like Christopher Noland who knew what he was doing.

  12. Why not just use the same storyline as the recent Animated Wonder Woman film, it was action packed and had a lot of posibilities especially In the end when Cheetah appeared.

  13. One of Wonder Woman’s powers from forever is that she can talk to animals. Nobody remembers this.

    I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that this rumor is a game of telephone mutation of the idea that one of the parties (director or studio) wanted to include the fact that she talks to animals in her powerset and the other balked.

    (Also – the idea that she’s a “warrior” and only a warrior pisses me off to no end. It’s a distortion of a great character to narrow her down to Xena Warrior Princess. She’s not Xena – she’s got a helluva lot more depth than Xena ever did as a character – but everyone wants to avoid those parts and just focus on how much ass she can kick. If they go that route for this movie it’s going to be as bad as Man of Steel – where Snyder and co. decided that the most important facet of Superman’s character was how much ass he could kick.)

Comments are closed.