Showing posts with label Wonder Woman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wonder Woman. Show all posts

Saturday, May 14, 2011

On the topic of Wonder Woman not getting picked up by NBC

There are many kinds of people in this world and these different people have different sets of tastes.  There are also many kinds of stories in this world, and many ways of telling stories.  Mass media, especially television and its model of "who is watching now (and please don't skip the ads)" doesn't deal with either of these facts particularly well.

don't fear, America.  You will never see the latex-clad Wonder Woman on your TV screens.
I am a fan of the Wonder Woman character (albeit, not as big a fan as some).  I am not a fan of much of the work of David E. Kelley, most famous for his role as the creator of Ally McBeal, but also creator of Boston Legal, Snoops, Girls Club, Boston Public, The Wedding Bells and a dozen other projects.  I will confess that I liked Lake Placid.  I always like movies about giant alligators.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Wonder Woman pics show updated costume, running WW

Apparently the producers of the Wonder Woman TV show are looking at the internets and have made adjustments to the TV costume for Wonder Woman. Video and pictures started making the rounds about 12:00 Central time last night with pics from the set. Whether planted or not, it does show that the blue boots are gone and the pants are now less shiny, resolving two major costume complaints when pics of the costume hit the net just a week or so ago.

Fortunately, for professionals, the internet is always there with suggestions.

As WB will want to get fans behind the show (and not give them any reason to complain before it airs), perhaps the studio heads asked for the changes after doing a spot of Googling?

Palicki looks pretty good, I think. 
RED BOOTS


Those pants are pretty awesome


And Bleeding Cool is carrying a whole bunch more pics.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Aside from the fact the boots are blue, I am totally down with the Wonder Woman TV costume

From Entertainment Weekly

well, gosh

Well, yes, I think I will be watching this show.  Likely for the wrong reasons.

Oh, look! She has gold stars on the outside seam of her pants! That is so cool!

Not a problem, but I wonder why they changed the tiara? 

Also, I'm already over the fact that her boots are blue.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Adrianne Palicki is TV's Wonder Woman

Well, there you go.

ladies and germs, your Amazon Princess



NathanC sent along an article from Variety stating that Adrianne Palicki has been cast as Wonder Woman for the upcoming weekly drama on NBC. 

Late edit:  JimD sends along this article that echoes many of the thoughts you will see below.

It could be far worse.  In addition to being a fairly tall woman  (IMDB says she's an Amazon-appropriate 5'11"), if you've seen Friday Night Lights, she's actually a remarkably talented actor.  Her character (season 2 aside) had one of the more interesting story arcs, and you really did get to see a range there.  So, well done, TV people.

This also isn't her first run at a show based on a DC Property.  Way back in the day, she played a bad-guy in the never-aired pilot for an Aquaman TV show.  Yes, I've seen it.  Bought it on iTunes.  The show was just really poorly conceived and I'm not crying that it didn't make it.

She also appeared in a Smallville episode in 2004. 

Here's a picture from her days on Friday Night Lights (and that is what trees look like in Central Texas).


While hiring Palicki is a step in the right direction, you still have to worry a bit about the script reports that are coming out. They aren't very promising.

In fact, it sounds kind of terrible and as if David E. Kelley kind of missed the point/never bothered to read any actual Wonder Woman books, watch an episode of Justice League, etc... It just sounds like he took Ally McBeal and said "oh...  now she's a superhero!". 

At Comics Alliance
At iFanboy (this makes me want to sit in the dark and cry)
This is a new look at Wonder Woman that, while ringing familiar, will probably put off a lot of Wonder Woman traditionalists and, I’m assuming, most comic book fans. This is a Diana that likes to sing along -- loudly -- to the radio when she’s driving into work and eat a bunch of ice cream in her pajamas because she ran into her ex-boyfriend. Some people are going to find that endearing and some people will find it annoying.
I am kind of expecting nerd rage, but that the masses who don't know anything about the character will think this is really neat, which will, of course, drive me insane.  Which is something.  Its better than the pilot for Bionic Woman that couldn't fire a single neuron of any emotion, anger or sadness or joy or...  Or Nikita, which had me cracking up at its audacious, unironic awfulness.

I just really can't believe this is what DC is going with.  Not a great start for the Diane Nelson-era of DC Entertainment.  I suspect Ms. Nelson will take a while before she realizes what she actually has on her hands.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Quick Wonder Woman post


I wound up watching "The Line Up", a film noir with Eli Wallach. It started very slow, but its a pretty good picture once Wallach shows up. By today's standards, perhaps a bit clumsy, but its got its clever bits, too, and uses San Francisco to good effect.

The picture above is an Adam Hughes cover to Wonder Woman.  Frankly, I don't remember the story behind the cover, but ever since Waid and Ross's Kingdom Come, armored Wonder Woman has been sort of one of those "oh, she's really going to kick-some ass now" signifiers, like, I guess when the lions finally come together and form Voltron. 

I can take or leave CosPlay, as so much of its done poorly, but this young woman has been showing up as Armored Wonder Woman, and I tip my hat.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

I am going to need to brace myself for the fact that the Wonder Woman TV show is not going to be Wonder Woman

When I heard David E. Kelley, he of Ally McBeal, was tapped to write the upcoming Wonder Woman pilot, I think I understood what DC was thinking.  The last few superhero shows and movies featuring a female protagonist, those not about Buffy and vampires, have not set the world on fire.  The WB tried Birds of Prey (changing the premise so completely that they spent the first few episodes explaining what was going on), NBC's relaunch of The Bionic Woman failed (despite co-starring one of my personal faves, Miguel Ferrer), CW has Nikita, but I'm not sure anybody watched it after week 1...  And I'd certainly argue that Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was a bit of a female-centric action show (and actually really pretty good).  And we can revisit the Halle Berry-starring Catwoman, but I would really rather not (But you need to see it some day, so that we can learn and save future generations from these mistakes).

A while back Joel Silver, producer king of 90's-style action, landed the rights and hired Buffy/ Serenity-meister Joss Whedon to write and direct a Wonder Woman movie.  I have no idea what happened, but after the fanboys quit drooling and the dust settled, Silver actually fired Whedon off the job.  Of course the Whedon-zombies gnashed their teeth and wept, but I was never convinced.  I'm not a Buffy fan (I just never stayed engaged by the show), and I think after 13 episodes and a movie, I was good with Firefly. And I never watched whatever his last show was that didn't make it.

I don't know why these shows don't take.  Some say women can't carry an action show or movie, but there aren't many straight-up action shows on TV these days, anyway (even Smallville usually has about two minutes out of every 44 that's anybody punching anybody else), and action movies don't hit all that often.  So whether its a lady or a guy doing the punching...  I dunno.

But hiring Mr. Ally McBeal tells you one thing:  NBC wants to try to get female viewers, and Wonder Woman is going to be pretty soapy in order to fulfill the needs of somebody's demographic research data.

From the article:
However, Wonder Woman fans still may have cause for concern. If Deadline’s information is correct, Kelley’s take on the nearly 70-year-old superheroine will differ dramatically from her portrayals in the comic books or the ’70s TV series: Here she’ll be Diana Prince, a vigilante crimefighter and successful corporate executive in Los Angeles who tries to “balance all of the elements of her extraordinary life.”
I am sure the notion of a superhero will be enough to draw in a certain demographic, and certainly the name "Wonder Woman" will draw seekers of camp and nostalgia.  Smallville has had valleys and mountains on the soapiness graph, and always skewed toward the sort of dopey teen-soap that actually kept me from watching a show about Superman for about three or four years (and a lot of other people, too, I might add).  It DID mean Smallville has a rabid fan base, but that fan base is also pretty small in the TV landscape.  So DC surely knew it needed to be smarter than that if they wanted to make it on NBC.

I am fairly certain we are never going to see this on Wondy McBeal

Yes, to me its a disappointment that if they're going to bring Wonder Woman to the screen, its going to be Not-Wonder Woman.  (In the comics, Diana is not an executive, she doesn't live in LA, and she isn't a vigilante).  It doesn't mean I won't watch to see what they do for a few episodes, but...  my enthusiasm is muted, at best.

Of course as a WW reading fanboy, I'm disappointed.  Its a pyrrhic victory at best if the show is a hit but the character you love is subsumed by a completely inconsistent version.

My guess is that Kelley's launchpad was that for the past 15-20 years, the idea of the modern woman calling herself Wonder Woman generally meant that the person is a wife, mother and accomplished in her career.  But, of course, you can't have a TV show where the love interest questions are all already settled, so...  career and heroing.  Its not a bad idea, per se.  It just isn't the Amazon Princess showing up out of nowhere with a magic lasso preaching peace through strength. 

Straight up, Wonder Woman can be an amazing character.  In the 21st Century, she's a walking dichotomy as diplomat and warrior, feminist figure and bondage icon.  Camp character and inspiration.  People see that as an issue, but I see it as a nuanced character with core conflicts that can be explored.  But I also like the part where she flies into a fight and hits people really, really hard or pops them with an axe.

My guess is we're not scrapping the Amazon background, but its going to wind up being a show about people who all dress in business suits until the last 15 minutes when they wear their hero and villain clothes and everybody has jobs at companies that don't care if they show up.  And, as its David E. Kelley, the high powered executives wear skirts that would, yes, still in 2011, ensure the wearer of said skirt would not be taken seriously, ie: nobody in any real office would ever wear.

So what would my pitch be?  Normally I don't play this game.  Its not useful to second guess, and its not really criticism if all you're doing is saying "I have a pitch!".  But my guess is that Kelley's pitch will be so far removed from Wonder Woman, that, heck...  why wouldn't I have my say?  I would have gone all George Perez/Phil Jiminez/ Greg Rucka on them.  Diana comes to America from the hidden amazon society with an astronaut whose capsule fell into Themyscirean waters (rather than a fighter pilot).  She is fascinated by the outside/ Man's world, stays longer than her leave was granted, learns of the state of the world via TV and her own exploration, and perhaps learns that the Olympians are now manipulating man by hiding in plain sight as politicians, etc...  After a battle with, say, Medusa in the middle of Redskins Stadium, she and her mother agree to open an Amazonian Embassy in DC or New York, and the show becomes about the embassy and the two opposing world views of the 21st Century and a few thousand years of Themyscirian tradition of peace through strength.  It would give writers a chance to examine a culture composed of women and provide an interesting counterbalance and deep mythology to the show.  Also: greek monsters.  and beheadings.  And she would totally wear "the costume" when she wasn't wearing business suits at the embassy.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Wonder Woman to TV?

Rumors are now popping up that Wonder Woman may be headed to the small screen.

Here.

The CW Network (formerly the WB Network) has had Superman going for 10 years (ten years, people!  That's crazy!), but the season which began last week is the final season of the program.  Word on the street is that Warner Bros. quite likes the money Smallville has generated and has been looking for a replacement once Clark puts on the cape and flies off into the stratosphere (the Big Bad for this season, btw, is Darkseid.  This should be... interesting.). 

Will Wonder Woman work on the small screen? 

Well...

Ladies and gentlemen, my argument FOR a televised Wonder Woman

I own the complete run of the Lynda Carter Wonder Woman series on DVD, so I am pretty sure I'm not the right guy to ask. 

But...

The interesting thing about Wonder Woman is that there's such a flexible mythology to the character that the writers could muck about quite a bit and even the fanboys would barely bat an eye.  I know what version I prefer, but...  you know, if you start with a young enough Wonder Woman, and basically have her oppose her mother in order to leave the island, you're most of the way there as far as cannon goes.

Wonder Woman doesn't even always have a secret identity, and I sort of prefer the version that doesn't have a secret ID, but I don't see that playing terribly well on TV.  Unless it does, and then, there you go...


But as I was previously pondering, Wonder Woman has a pretty bizarre bunch of arch-nemeses.  But I think if you had the weekly format to build on, especially with her ties to Greek mythology, you could possibly build up a unique world for Wonder Woman to deal with.

Anyway, we'll see.  But I'm betting they adjust the costume.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Wonder Woman's (temporary) New Costume



This week Wonder Woman will launch a new storyline, and, frankly, I think it sounds kind of interesting. It's a sort of alternate timeline thing, so Diana is getting a different costume.

Anyway, I don't love the new costume. It's... kinda 90's-ish (a jacket with the sleeves rolled up?). But I am looking forward to the story.

If they were going to think of something to actually put Wonder Woman in something more substantial than the classic swimsuit, I would think something a bit more Greek Armor-ish. But, you know, from what they're saying about the story, this isn't totally crazy. I just like WW in something a little more classic. Gimme some red boots, people.

Read more here.

edit update: DC is blowing some smoke about how this change is permanent, but... we'll see. I still think this is story related, and they can change back when they want.

Back in the 1970's, DC dropped her usual outfit for an Emma Peel (of the Brit spy show, The Avengers) style approach. They also stripped away her powers and turned her into a master of karate.


In some ways, seeing Diana Prince shooting down Reds in an airplane with a machine gun is totally awesome

The stories are kind of interesting, but its just not Wonder Woman. And its considered one of DC's most obvious missteps as a company. And they got called out by Gloria Steinem, herself, for the change.


But beating up Lois Lane? Hilarious. Also, Superman is an insufferable jerk.

She's clearly got her powers and usual gadgets in the new design, which will keep some happy, but I'd expect this isn't the last word on the outfit. And certainly the new continuity introduced doesn't seem like a permanent change.