Talk about buying the lede.
The Los Angeles Times is out today with an article detailing “Everything we learned from the Wonder Woman WonderCon panel,” in which they dish on convention comments made by Patty Jenkins, director of the upcoming Wonder Woman movie, and Geoff Johns, executive producer of that flick and, oh, yeah — chief creative officer at DC Comics. But they save for last the aspect of the movie likely to be of greatest interest to true comic book geeks.
The article tells us things that are evident in the movie trailers released thus far: That Wonder Woman’s origin features large in the film, that the magic lasso gets its share of screen time, and that the dark ally ambush scene is indeed intended to be an homage to the 1978 Superman movie.
The article also assures us that Chris Pine (Steve Trevor) is no mere sidekick, and that super-hero movies are no mere fad. Jenkins also says that love is Wonder Woman’s motivating factor.
“She’s not the only character who has a strong moral compass and a belief system, of course, but what I like about her is that that is her mission,” Jenkins said. “Her mission is a belief of mankind and what they can be.”
But it wasn’t until the end of the article that Times reporter Meredith Woerner got to the parts of the talk for which, she notes, the panel audience “definitely perked up.”
“Johns reassured the crowd that there are some things in the ethos of this character that will remain unchanged,” Woerner wrote. “He listed Themyscira [Wonder Woman’s homeland], the magic lasso, the Amazons and Steve Trevor as unchangeable story points. It would be like removing Krypton from Superman’s back story [to pass over those elements].
But Woerner adds:
“However, it’s still a movie, so it can’t possibly be a literal translation of the original comic, which was only a few pages long.”
So, no invisible jet then?
And, while the movie is an origin story, which origin? Will Wonder Woman be made of clay, a daughter of Zeus, or something else?
Meanwhile, the Hollywood Reporter tells us Jenkins and Johns “wowed the crowd” at WonderCon with three new clips of Gal Gadot in action as the Amazing Amazon. However, it only describes two of the clips, both of which — the alley ambush and Gadot entering a building feet-a-blazin’ to bust up some German soldiers — sound like scenes already seen in the trailers.
However, the piece does quote Johns on inspirations for the film, citing more recent comics writers like George Perez, Greg Rucka and Phil Jimenez over their Silver Age counterparts, or even Wonder Woman creator William Moulton Marston.
“You’re panning for gold,” Johns said of going back to the source, writes HR reporter Borys Kit, “and finding gold every time.”
Wonder Woman is set to open in theaters June 2. It stars Gal Gadot returning to her Batman v Superman role as the Amazon Princess, deemed by Jenkins to be “the best fighter in the DC Universe,” and Chris Pine as Steve Trevor, in addition to Robin Wright (The Princess Bride) as General Antiope, Connie Nielson (Gladiator) as Queen Hippolyta, Lucy Davis (Shaun of the Dead) as Etta Candy, Elena Anaya (The Infiltrator) as Doctor Poison, David Thewlis (Remus in the Harry Potter series) as Sir Patrick, Danny Huston (American Horror Story) as General Ludendoff, Ann Ogbomo (World War Z) as Phillipus, and boxing trainer Ann Wolfe as Artemis.
The movie’s story is by Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen, Man of Steel, Batman v Superman), Allen Heinberg (Party of Five, Grey’s Anatomy, The O.C.) and Jason Fuchs (Pan, Ice Age: Continental Drift), with the screenplay by Heinberg.
