Joss Whedon

WONDERING ABOUT WHEDON’S WONDER WOMAN?

Although he probably won’t even begin writing Wonder Woman until he sees the public’s reception to Serenity and begins recovering from his latest ulcer, Joss Whedon has been talking about his plans for the lasso-swirling Amazon. Can comic fans expect the same respectful treatment that Warner Bros. granted to Catwoman?

Let’s hope not, but at least Whedon fans will know that even if he dispenses with six decades of comic history, our cinematic Wonder Woman will be “similar” to previous incarnations. “I’ve never loved the comics and I didn’t watch the television series” Whedon strangely admits, “but I loved the character very much."

It seems he’s also going the fish-out-of-water approach for the endlessly-in-development project. “She doesn’t really understand this world,” spake Joss to Aussie radio. “She’s very strong but she’s also very naive. She’s not quite as little as the girls I’m used to writing, but she’s definitely one of them in the sense of she’ll undergo that kind of baptism of fire that used to be relegated to the male gender. She’ll have to come into the world and see how corrupt it is and learn to deal with it and with her own powers.”

There’s been a lot of discussion about who’s going to slip into the bulletproof bracelets and gilded bustier for Whedon’s Wonder Woman “reinvention”, with many a fanboy/girl naturally dreamcasting familiar former Whedon faces like Charisma Carpenter, Eliza Dushku, Morena Baccarin and even waifish but kickass-capable Summer Glau (personally I think Gina Torres is the only Whedon regular who’s qualified, and yes, I realize she’s black), while other actresses like Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel are purportedly on the imaginary “short list” for the role.

And now fresh from my email inbox, here’s another seemingly random actress supposedly interested in the role: saucer-eyed, bounteously bosomed beauty Katherine Heigl, the former Roswell alien and Seagal niece who’s currently on the hot hospital series Grey’s Anatomy. And while I suspect that (much like the all the Joker talk for the next Batman movie) it’s little more than the wishful casting of admirers, or friends or talent representatives getting her name into “interest circulation” even though it’ll be many months before casting happens, I guess I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention it. And I hate being remiss.