No, nothing to do with Social Justice Warriors; the Dish has covered the subject of diversity in the superhero genre since the summer. The latest: Breaking Bad director Michelle MacLaren is in top contention to direct the upcoming Wonder Woman movie. Jesse David Fox notes that “MacLaren would be the first female director in the recent history of major comic-book movies.” Homeland’s Lesli Linka Glatter and The Babadook‘s Jennifer Kent are also in contention. Sean O’Connell speculates on the challenges a female director could face with the project:
The pressure to deliver on the superhero front is being given as a reason why one female director, Lexi Alexander, says she’d never accept the Wonder Woman gig that’s currently being set up at Warner Bros. Alexander hasn’t been offered the job, even though her name is frequently attached to wish-list features (like one we ran recently) because of the work she did on the gritty, bloodthirsty Punisher: War Zone. But in an interview with Fast Company, she spells out why the pressure to deliver on the first female-driven superhero film would be too much to get her into the director’s chair:
We finally get Wonder Woman with a female director: imagine if it fails? And you have no control over marketing, over budget. So without any control, you carry the fucking weight of gender equality for both characters and women directors. No way.
Not exactly a profile in courage. O’Connell continues:
Who will fanboys blame if Wonder Woman isn’t good? If Lexi Alexander feels this way and willingly shares this concern, is it possible that other qualified contenders like Jane Goldman or Michelle MacLaren share this early concern and don’t want to step off of that ledge? I certainly hope this isn’t the case.
I’d like to believe that there are big enough ideas at play in a possible Wonder Woman movie that any director – male or female – could dial in and turn the material into a hit. Audiences are extremely receptive to superhero films, at the moment, and even “failures” like The Amazing Spider-Man 2 earn north of $700 million at the global box office. Wonder Woman seems destined to succeed, just off the curiosity factor, alone. If the studio goes ahead as planned and makes it a period piece – a la Captain America: The First Avenger – the interest level could even be higher than expected.
At the same time, any director contemplating the solo Wonder Woman movie has to deal with a handful of unknowns at the moment. They haven’t see [lead actress] Gal Gadot in action. They don’t know, fully, how the character will be introduced in Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. And they don’t know how the movie landscape will change between now and 2017. But that isn’t about being a female director trying to get a foot in the door of the comic-book genre. That’s about being part of the mysterious process of building a Cinematic Universe… and that comes with it’s own unique forms of pressure.
Linda Holmes comments:
There’s no rule that says that a Wonder Woman movie being about a woman means it has to be directed by a woman. Down that road lies ache; down that road lies “well, then I guess Kathryn Bigelow can’t direct an Aquaman movie, nyah.” The issue is more, for me, that I’ve lost all belief that they’re anywhere close to entrusting a male superhero to a female director, so it’s either this or nothing for the indefinite future.
More Dish on the broader subject here.
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