Wonder Woman has been loved by audiences worldwide and considered a masterpiece of superhero cinema. However, Patty Jenkins, the director revealed that it almost did not exist.
She talked about her war with Warner Bros. executives over mistrust issues. The director shared that they reportedly went through multiple scripts before bringing her version to life. In her recent interview with Marc Maron for his WTF podcast, she described how the studio was not interested in her ideas.
She was there to promote the movie’s new sequel WW84. The director explained that the studio was less interested in her ideas more than the optics of having a woman direct a female-centric superhero movie.
“Everybody in the industry wanted to hire me,” said the 49-year-old director. She was also behind the critically acclaimed, Monster which won Charlize Theron the Oscar for Best Actress back in 2004. The director shared that she felt she was hired to walk around on set being a woman director. She added that it was their story and their vision they wanted to be on screen.
According to Patty, they did not even want to read the script she had. “There was such mistrust of a different way of doing things and a different point of view,” she told Marc. She shared, “Even when I first joined ‘Wonder Woman’ it was like, ‘Uhh, yeah, OK, but let’s do it this other way.’ But I was like, ‘Women don’t want to see that. Her being harsh and tough and cutting people’s heads off … I’m a ‘Wonder Woman’ fan, that’s not what we’re looking for.’ Still, I could feel that shaky nervousness [on their part] of my point of view.”
Patty’s Back And Forth With Warner Bros
The director explained that she worried the project will not be possible at the time. She shared that all of them were freaked out by all the female superhero films that had failed. Patty explained that Christopher Nolan was making the Dark Knight as she said they were trying to figure out what they were doing with DC.
“They came back to me a year later and said, ‘Do you want to do it your way?” the director told Marc of shattering the cinematic glass ceiling. “And boom, I just went and made the movie.” Warner Bros. had first approached Patty about writing and direction Wonder Woman back in 2007.
She had declined the offer at the time because she was pregnant. However, she came back on board in 2011 but had to leave over creative differences. This led to WB hiring Michelle MacLaren, the director of Breaking Bad. The project soon died as the studio offered Patty and gave her full creative control over Wonder Woman.
Even then, realizing her vision was no picnic. “During that period of time, there were so many scripts — because I could see the writing on the wall,” she said, noting that Warner Bros. went through around 30 scripts over the years. “There was an internal war on every level about what ‘Wonder Woman’ should be.”
Now, Patty is set to direct Wonder Woman 3 after directing Wonder Woman and WW84.
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