“Who is going to play Wonder Woman?” has been the leading question ever since it was announced that Warner Brothers was hiring “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” god Joss Whedon to pen and direct a new movie. Not only has a name not been forthcoming, but now Warner Brothers and partner Silver Pictures have picked up a second script – one not written by Whedon, leaving fans to wonder, “What in Hera’s name is going on?”
Worry not Wonder-fans. According to The Hollywood Reporter, WB has no plans to actually produce this mysterious second script, written by Matthew Jennison and Brent Strickland as a spec script. Their script takes place in Wonder Woman’s original setting – World War II, which Joel Silver has stated he has no interest in setting his picture (Whedon is aiming for a more contemporary setting) So why pay money to a pair of newbies for a script that will never be made?
According to the Hollywood Reporter article, sources indicate that Warner Brothers picked up the script to remove it as a potential future lawsuit. If Jennison and Strickland’s script sat out there and there were similarities between Whedon’s movie and their script, they could possibly sue the studio. This way, any similarities are inconsequential, since the studio owns both scripts. One can’t help but wonder if there isn’t more to it than this though – what about the thousands of Wonder Woman fan fiction out there? Could they potentially sue the studio as well? Surely there is more behind this than simply avoiding legal action.
At the same time, my big question is, when will we actually see anything from Whedon, Silver, and WB on Wonder Woman? Joss signed on in March of 2005 to work on the movie, so it’s been almost two years with very little to show. If no big announcement is made at San Diego Comic Con this year then it’s likely this project is dead in the water.
