Joss Whedon

Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel creator Joss Whedon has signed to write and direct Wonder Woman, a live-action film adaptation of the DC Comics character for Warner Bros. Pictures. Joel Silver and Leonard Goldberg are producing.

"Wonder Woman is the most iconic female heroine of our time, but in a way, no one has met her yet," Whedon said. "What I love most about icons is finding out what’s behind them, exploring the price of their power. When Joel and I began discussing the character, I realized there is a woman behind the legend who is very fascinating, very uncompromising and in her own way almost vulnerable. She’s someone who doesn’t belong in this world, and since everyone I know feels that way about themselves, the character clicked for me."

Wonder Woman is the superhero name of Diana, an Amazonian princess from Paradise Island, an uncharted island to which the Amazons fled to escape domination by the ancient Greeks and Romans. She has super strength, bracelets that deflect bullets and a golden lasso that ensnares victims and forces them to tell the truth. She has, at times, even had her own super vehicle, an invisible plane.

"There’s no one better than Joss to adapt the legendary Wonder Woman comic book character created in the 1940s into a dynamic feature film for 21st century audiences," Silver said. "Wonder Woman was the first great female superhero to emerge from comic books and later inspire millions of fans in her television incarnation, but unlike her counterparts Batman and Superman, this groundbreaking heroine has yet to be reinvented for the feature film arena."

Wonder Woman was created by educational consultant William Moulton Marston and first appeared in All Star Comics in 1941. Because of her popularity, she got her own self-titled series six months later. The heroine was played by Lynda Carter in the TV series that ran on ABC and CBS from 1976-79.

"We are excited about working with Joss," Warner Bros. Pictures president Jeff Robinov said. "He brings great energy and creativity to the process. His work on ’Buffy’ makes him uniquely qualified to handle the Wonder Woman character."

Whedon is in postproduction on Universal Pictures’ Serenity, which he wrote and directed based on his short-lived Fox drama series Firefly. His other writing credits include Toy Story and Alien: Resurrection.