'Wonder Woman' director details initial issues with Warner Bros over creative control

Released in 2017. Wonder Woman was the first lead superhero film in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). Directed by Patty Jenkins, it features Gal Gadot in the titular character and has received positive responses from the audiences. However, Warner Bros. Studios initially had several issues with the project which began in 2004 with Jenkins being in and out of it.

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Wonder Woman director claims the studios didn’t want to read her script initially

In a recent conversation with Marc Maron on WTF podcast via The Playlist, Patty Jenkins revealed the problems she faced with the original Wonder Woman plot and her disagreement with Warner Bros. Studios. She told the company that she wanted to make the superhero film in 2004 and met them with the script every two years until the film was finally made. The filmmaker said that Warner Bros wanted to "hire her as a beard" they wanted her to walk around on set, but it was their story and their vision. She recalled that there was no consideration for her ideas, and they did not even want to read her script.

Jenkins stated that there was mistrust of a different way of doing things and a different point of view. She mentioned that when she joined Wonder Woman, the studios wanted her to do it in their way. But she was like, ‘Women don’t want to see that. Her being harsh and tough and cutting people’s heads off.’ The filmmaker asserted that she is a Wonder Woman fan and knows that it is not what females are looking for in her. But she could still feel that “shaky nervousness” on the studios' part of her point of view.

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Patty Jenkins revealed that they asked her to helm the movie in 2007, but she turned it down as she was pregnant at the time. She said that Warner Bros were nervous that the project was not viable. They were all “freaked out” by all the female superhero films that had failed. She mentioned that Christopher Nolan was making the Dark Knight at the time, so she thinks they were just trying to figure out what they were doing with DC back then.

The filmmaker mentioned that finally, the moment came in 2011 when Warner Bros wanted her to make the film. However, she said that they wanted to have a Wonder Woman story for which she was not the right person, so she left the project and they hired someone else which was Michelle MacLaren. Jenkins recalled that she told the company that she does not think it is the story they should tell with Diana Prince, and she did not want to be the one to get in a fight about it for years.

After a year, Warner Bros parted ways with MacLaren and gave Patty Jenkins the greenlight to have her Wonder Woman plot. She said the company had about “30 scripts,” written with all the versions and variations they attempted. The director mentioned that during that period, there were “so many scripts,” she could see the writing on the wall. There was an “internal war on every level” about what Wonder Woman should be, she noted. In the end, WB came to her asking if she wanted to make the film in her way, and she just made the movie.

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