Warner Brothers is in the process of acquiring a spec script for a Wonder Woman film by newcomers Matthew Jennison and Brent Strickland, despite already having a deal with Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon to write and direct a film based on the DC Comics character, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Sources told the trade paper that the purchase is a pre-emptive measure intended to keep the script off the market and to protect itself against any legal action prompted by similarities between the two scripts. The Jennison-Strickland script is reportedly set against the backdrop of World War II, while Whedon’s script is set in the present day.
How’s that sort of deal work? “Fellas, we wanna buy your script…to ensure that it never gets made.” “Hooray!”
Update: The script may end up getting produced after all. Joss Whedon is no longer attached to the Wonder Woman movie.
to keep the script off the market and to protect itself against any legal action prompted by similarities between the two scripts.
So does that mean that any two Whedon fans or Wonder Woman fanfic writers can get together, write a script, and dangle it in front of the WB for a few (dozen?) grand? Cause if so, I have a plan for my summer vacation.
Took the words right out of my mouth.
Oh sure, I know people out here who would be happy for a script deal like that. “You mean we get paid?”
I hope the movie is good. The problem her character has always had is that, more than any other big-name superhero except Captain America, Wonder Woman is supposed to be an abstract idea incarnate: feminine strength. And, as the public’s notions of idealized feminine behavior have changed over the decades, her personality has kept morphing.
(Frankly, I’ve always been impressed that Captain America’s personality has remained as consistent over the years as it has, since certainly our notion of what it means to be a good American has shifted around over time.)
The other problem is that for decades, for reasons I can’t fathom, DC kept periodically purging her entire supporting cast and replacing them with new people we didn’t know or care about. Steve Trevor got killed and resurrected repeatedly, even before the Crisis. Even her secret identity eventually got retconned away. Now that’s back, but Paradise Island is gone.
I rather like the new version of her comic that got launched a few months ago, and I hope it stays good. I think the old Lynda Carter TV show nailed her personality pretty perfectly.
Well, I think the quality of this script was also a significant factor.
And, at this point, after all the speculation over who will be cast as Wonder Woman, I’m a little worried the movie will almost be secondary. Still, Whedon has almost always managed to surprise and entertain me before.