DCEU: 10 Things You Might Not Know About WONDER WOMAN - Warped Factor - Words in the Key of Geek.

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DCEU: 10 Things You Might Not Know About WONDER WOMAN

Geek Dave will fight for those who cannot fight for themselves.
1. Despite the incredibly popular 1970s TV series, the first time a live action Wonder Woman feature film actively went into development began in 1996, with Ivan Reitman attached as producer and possible director. There followed close to two decades of development hell and a near revolving door of talent attached to the project.

Acorss those years, there were three times when we came very close to actually having a live-action big screen Wonder Woman, including one time when an actress was cast for the role. The first significant project began in 1999 when the project became attached to Jon Cohen, who adapted Wonder Woman for producer Joel Silver, with the hope that Sandra Bullock would star as Diana, the immortal Amazon warrior goddess. By 2001, Todd Alcott was hired to write the screenplay, with Silver Pictures backing the project, but Bullock had competition for the lead with both Mariah Carey and Catherine Zeta-Jones said to be possible candidates for the role of Wonder Woman. Netahertheless, producer Leonard Goldberg confirmed they'd appraoched Sandra Bullock to play the part, with filming potentially starting in 2002.
"Sandy's interested, and we've met with her. It all depends on the script and director, of course, but she hasn't done anything this physical in a long time, and she'd like to. We'd love to have her."
For whatever reason, Bullock's name was no longer in contention by the end of 2001, with Lucy Lawless, the star of Xena: Warrior Princess, now reportedly under consideration, though Lawless stated that she would have been more interested if Wonder Woman was portrayed as a "flawed hero". News surrounding the production began to fizzle out as the screenplay went through various drafts written by multiple additional scriptwriters, culminating in August 2003 when Levens had been replaced by screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis and a brand new direction was sought.
2. It would be two years later when development on a Wonder Woman movie started to step back up a gear when in March 2005 Warner Bros. and Silver Pictures announced that Joss Whedon would write and direct the film. Early drafts of his screenplay included Steve Trevor as the narrator, a fierce battle between Diana and her mother over Trevor's welfare, and after leaving Themyscira, his need to frequently rescue a Diana rendered helpless by the modern world. Although Whedon stated in May 2005 that he would not cast the part of Wonder Woman until he finished the script, at this time Kate Beckinsale was rumoured to be in contention for the lead.

On January 31st 2007, as Whedon was still toiling away on his long delayed screenplay, Warner Bros. and Silver Pictures purchased a spec script for the film written by Matthew Jennison and Brent Strickland. Set during World War II, the script impressed executives at Silver Pictures. The following day, Whedon left the project. In a later interview, Whedon admitted that throughout all his development on the film he did have an actress in mind for the part, stating that "Wonder Woman was basically Angelina Jolie."
3. 2007 would see the first proposed big screen Wonder Woman finally cast! It happened when Warner Bros. began development of a Justice League film, entitled Justice League: Mortal, which was to be directed by George Miller and would have featured Wonder Woman as a principal character. Australian model Megan Gale was announced as Diana in January 2008. The film would later be cancelled following production delays and budgetary concerns, and it would seem that despite already having a complete wardrobe (below) and undergoing extensive training for the part, Gale was sadly not destined to play Wonder Woman as a new TV reboot starring Adrianne Palicki briefly became the talk of the town.
4. The pilot episode for the reboot was as far as that Wonder Woman project went as Warner Bros. renewed interest in a big screen outing for Diana Prince, and invited pitched from a variety of directors and screenwriters. In 2013, Paul Feig revealed that he had pitched the studio an idea for Wonder Woman as an action-comedy film. Let's be thankful that Warner's passed on that, instead announcing that Michelle MacLaren, who had been behind the camera for episodes of The X-Files, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, and Westworld (and won two back-to-back Primetime Emmy Awards for Breaking Bad in 2013 and 2014) had been signed to direct and develop the project. A last hiccup in the long gestating project came in April 2015 when MacLaren left the production due to creative differences.

5. Following MacLaren's departure, Patty Jenkins accepted an offer to direct Wonder Woman. Many fans questioned why she was hired rather than a more qualified director, claiming without any proof that Warner's were trying to set the film up to fail. It was true that even though she had only directed one low budget drama film in her career 14 years before and had no experience handling big budget action movie - having briefly been attached to Thor: The Dark World before leaving because of those all too often "creative differences" - it's equally true that she was an accomplished filmmaker by the time of her joining the development. Jenkins had directed the film Monster in 2003, which received dozens of awards and nominations, and she had won the Directors Guild of America award for Outstanding Directing in Dramatic Series for her work on the pilot episode of The Killing.

One other thing that was often overlooked was that Jenkins had a long history with Wonder Woman as she'd first entered talks with Warner Bros. to direct the film back in 2005 during its long stage of development hell. Due to her unexpected pregnancy she had to step down, leaving the door open for the 'Joss Whedon years'. However, it had remained a passion project for her, stating "Wonder Woman is the film I have been wanting to do my whole life".
6. Gal Gadot had already been cast as Wonder Woman in late 2013 by Zack Snyder for his 2016 film, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. She'd beaten close contendors Élodie Yung (who went on to play Elektra in Daredevil) and Olga Kurylenkogot (who played James Bond girl Camille Montes in Quantum of Solace - a role Gadot had been in contention for).

At the time Gadot had almost given up on Hollywood. Although having some success with roles in the Fast & Furious franchise and minor parts in Date Night and Knight & Day, she'd tired of regularly taking 15-hour flights from Israel and then back again after being unsuccessful at landing a string of larger roles she'd auditioned for. When she was invited for a screen test, not knowing what the film was about or what role it was for, Gadot agreed as a kind of final attempt before she quit the business. The screen test consisted largely of reading relatively anonymous dialogue and she left afterward to return to Israel. It wasn't until received a call-back when she was told that she was short-listed to play Wonder Woman, which reignited her passion for the profession.

7. Nicole Kidman was in negotiations for the role of Queen Hippolyta, but was forced to drop out due to scheduling conflicts with Big Little Lies. Connie Nielsen was eventually offered the part of Hippolyta thanks to producer Zack Snyder who fought for her when Charlize Theron turned down the role after Kidman's departure.
8. Some of the Amazons have flesh colored cloth over one side of their chest, almost seeming like one breast was uncovered or nonexistent (this is very apparent in the opening sequence when young Diana watches the training and Antiope walks over to talk with an Amazon so clad). This may be a reference to the fact that Amazons are often depicted in art as having one breast exposed. Ancient sources even state that Amazons cut or burned off their breast on their dominant side so that it wouldn't interfere with combat, especially with a bow. Some ancient sources suggest that this is the source of their name; "a-mazos" in Greek means "without breast".

9. Chris Pine, who stars as American pilot and the love interest of Diana, Steve Trevor, went through an intense workout regimen for the film before principal photography began, commenting at the time he was in the best shape of his life. When it came to filming though, all that extra muscle had a drawback, as Pine revealed....
"I got in incredible shape for this film [but] I was also wearing about 75 pounds of clothing. What I realized is that I made a major mistake, I got in great shape and they just put clothes over all my hard work."
10. After it's premiere in May 2017, Wonder Woman became a source of political controversy in some countries, largely revolving around its star. The film was banned in Lebanon after the Campaign to Boycott Supporters of Israel asked the Lebanese government's Ministry of Economy and Trade to block the film because Gal Gadot had been a former Israel Defense Forces soldier. Interestingly, the Lebanese government did not ban Gadot's Fast & Furious films which did screen in Lebanon, but her starring role was, seemingly, too much for them.

The following month a ban on Wonder Woman was considered in Jordan, but even though screening were suspended the government decided not to outright ban the film as there was no legal precedent for it. Qatar, though, did issue a ban, and Algiers, the capital of Algeria, pulled the film from the "Nuits du Cinéma" film festival, and a Tunisian court suspended the theatrical release of Wonder Woman after a lawsuit brought by the Al-Chaab party and the Tunisian Association of Young Lawyers to have the film blocked due to Gadot's military service and public comments she made in support of the Israeli military during the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict between her native Israel and the Palestinian enclave of the Gaza Strip.

The rest of the world helped Wonder Woman become the most profitable DCEU release to date, at the time, grossing $412.6 million in the United States and Canada and $409.3 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $821.8 million, against an estimated production budget of $120–150 million.

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