Joss Whedon

In this Special Edition exclusive, Stax looks at the script (written in 2001) for producer Joel Silver’s feature film version of the DC Comics heroine that may star Sandra Bullock.

Stax here with my reaction to the screenplay for Wonder Woman! This 111-page draft is by playwright and screenwriter Todd Alcott (Antz, 13 Ghosts, the in-development Deadworld); Jon Cohen (Minority Report) wrote the previous draft. This feature film version of the DC Comics heroine, created in 1941 by Charles (William Moulton) Marston, will be produced by Leonard Goldberg (Charlie’s Angels) and action maestro Joel Silver (The Matrix, Sgt. Rock). Warner Brothers apparently hopes to have Wonder Woman in theaters as early as 2003. A number of actresses have been (falsely?) rumored for the lead role, including Catherine Zeta-Jones, Mariah Carey, Xena’s Lucy Lawless, wrestler Chyna, and Eliza Dushku (TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer) but Sandra Bullock has long been the frontrunner.

Indeed, this past May producer Goldberg advised Variety that Bullock is "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." USA Today recently reported, though, that Bullock wasn’t impressed with Alcott’s draft and that he’d have to head back to the drawing board if they want her. (Bear that in mind while reading this review.) Sources for Comics2Film advised them that Alcott’s script "reads like the first Superman or the first Batman movie" and that "it most definitely does not have the goofy, girl-power vibe (of) Charlie’s Angels."

That’s a matter of interpretation, obviously. The only similarities this draft had to Batman was that the story began with the super-hero’s career already underway; it only recalled Superman so far as it had a villain in the vein of Gene Hackman’s comical genius Lex Luthor. There were times when I did feel that this draft had a "goofy, girl-power vibe" to it but that isn’t how I’d characterize the overall effort. No, I’d say this Wonder Woman was more reminiscent of Kate Kondell’s now discarded draft for Catwoman. Both stories had mousy young women transformed into gorgeous fighting machines and going up against an evil industrialist with a crackpot scheme, and both stories teamed the heroine with a tough cop/potential love interest. While this draft of Wonder Woman was nowhere near as bad as Kondell’s Catwoman, it was a silly disappointment nevertheless.

Wonder Woman actually presents two Wonder Women for the price of one: Diana Prince and Donna Troy. This version opens with "original" heroine Diana Prince but soon becomes the story of how Donna Troy assumes the mantle of Wonder Woman. Diana’s role in this tale is akin to that of Anthony Hopkins in The Mask of Zorro. I won’t give away what the exact nature of the relationship between Diana and Donna is except to say that it is different than the one presented in both the comics and the hit 1970s TV series, which starred Linda Carter as Wonder Woman and young Debra Winger as her kid sister Drusilla/Wonder Girl. And, like The Mask of Zorro, this script allows the original hero and her successor to team-up in the last act. This suggests to me that while Bullock may be the frontrunner for the role of Donna another of those rumored actresses could very well be up for Diana Prince. Since Diana is an Amazon goddess, she never appears a day over thirty so several of the rumored candidates could conceivably play her.

Sandra Bullock may star.

Without revealing too many spoilers (I will be on my best behavior here), this story is about how Donna Troy comes to realize that she’s the new Wonder Woman. The tale is set in the corrupt Pacific Northwest metropolis of Gateway City, which suggests that the filmmakers might be spying cost-effective Vancouver as a locale. (Think of Gateway City as San Francisco’s evil twin.) Donna works for a company that sells and promotes environmentally-friendly products, which is ironic since the script describes her drab workplace as "plastic." She’s having dreams where she’s living out events that actually happened. Specifically, a violent altercation at residential Marston Tower (named after Wonder Woman’s creator) between a woman (whom we know is Diana Prince) and a man (who is involved with the villain’s dastardly scheme). Donna’s dream is actually Diana’s perspective of the fight as it transpires. Beckoned to the crime scene by this dream, Donna raises the suspicion of dogged police detective Mike Schorr.

Long story short: Donna finds that she has suddenly and inexplicably gained super-powers (superior strength, speed, and fighting skills) and that she’s somehow connected to the mysterious Diana Prince. (Diana’s origin is related about halfway through via a brief, expository "out of body" visit to the paradise island of Themyscira.) Donna has now become the target of hi-tech arms manufacturer Dr. Peter Sychopoulos (a.k.a. "Dr. Psycho", I kid you not), the evil CEO of SDS Industries. Dr. Psycho needs to recover an item that one of his minions was dispatched to collect in the beginning of the story. Diana Prince, a top-secret agent for the DIA (the Defense Intelligence Agency), foiled Psycho’s plan and absconded with this MacGuffin but she was subsequently injured in the brawl at Marston Tower and is now missing. Locating Diana (and the MacGuffin) becomes the goal for Donna and her new sidekick/potential lover Mike, as well as for Dr. Psycho.

Dr. Psycho’s sinister plan has international implications as well as an approaching deadline so time is of the essence for our heroine. (I won’t reveal what exactly he’s up to except to say that it involves a cliché doomsday weapon.) Donna quickly comes to terms with her newfound powers and her Amazonian destiny, and confronts Dr. Psycho’s minions in a series of public altercations that leads to her being dubbed "Wonder Woman" by the press. This draft ends with a not too subtle set-up for a potential sequel/franchise.

I’ve never been a huge fan of Wonder Woman. I only really know the Diana Prince character from the Super Friends cartoon and the Linda Carter TV show. I was, however, a faithful reader of The Teen Titans back in the 1980s so I’m familiar with the character of Donna Troy. Indeed, one of my favorite issues was the "Who is Donna Troy?" story line. (No, comics fans, there’s no mention here of any other DC super-heroes or locales, including the Titans, Batman, or Superman.) Overall, what bothered me most about Todd Alcott’s draft wasn’t that it deviated from the established lore but that his Wonder Woman was a composite of other movie and comic book characters. It’s as if the filmmakers are reticent to really make a Wonder Woman movie.

"Reel" heroine Donna Troy

This Wonder Woman recycles signature elements from other super-heroes rather than establishing anything unique of her own. The first ten pages feature Diana Prince as a sort of cross between Superman and James Bond, a secret agent who can fly at the speed of sound (yes, that’s one of Wonder Woman’s powers here). She even soars down to retrieve a falling child like Superman did in the Niagra Falls rescue scene from Superman II. She then pins a bad guy to the wall and crushes his hand as she interrogates him in a very Batman-like moment. Wonder Woman even comes crashing down through a skylight! (She is described at one point as "a fierce, focused, terrifying warrior of the night." This is Wonder Woman - as played by Sandra Bullock?!)

Wonder Woman uses her Golden Lasso like Indiana Jones would his bullwhip or Batman his batarang, and she can fight like Lara Croft. Wonder Woman runs at super-speed like The Flash and leaves a captured villain tied up and dangling from a lightpole in front of the police station, a la Spider-Man. There’s also a very James Bond-like ski-mobile chase in the Alps early on. Do you see what I mean by Wonder Woman being derivative of other comics and films rather than being her own unique character? This version sometimes reminded me of the 1974 TV movie where Cathy Lee Crosby played a character who was Wonder Woman in name only.

Visually, this script suggests a Wonder Woman who is garbed more like Donna Troy from the recent comics. Both Diana and Donna wear skintight black catsuits, black boots, and Wonder Woman’s signature gauntlets, except that these are silver in color. Diana Prince also wears a snug, fur-lined flight jacket over her catsuit during the opening sequence in the Alps. They also wear their hair pulled straight back, like Jean Grey in the X-Men movie. Both Diana and Donna are described as having raven-black hair, dark eyes (Donna’s inexplicably turn a "misty grey" when using her powers), and they both have "cupid’s bow lips."

The mid-point sequence has Donna discovering Diana’s hidden lair where she also finds Diana’s (for lack of a better expression) "warrior princess" outfits, including one that bears a more passing resemblance to the classic Wonder Woman costume. Diana’s Amazonian outfits are described as somewhere between ancient and futuristic in design, an odd combination that left me with an image of Xena crossed with the costumes from 1980’s Flash Gordon. The architecture of Themyscira is also described as being a cross between the ancient and the futuristic, which suggested Stargate.

Producer Joel Silver

Wonder Woman doesn’t have an invisible jet now that she can fly at the speed of sound. She has super-strength but it’s not clear just how strong she really is (but she tears into a jet at one point). What I don’t get is how Wonder Woman can be hurt by bullets or knives but she can travel at the speed of sound? Wouldn’t her flying at such a velocity do more damage to her body than a bullet?! Her silver gauntlets can, of course, deflect bullets but that gimmick strains credulity in this day and age. If Wonder Woman was dodging gunfire from revolvers I might buy it but a state of the art automatic rifle is a tougher sell. A comic book movie must make you suspend your disbelief but there were more than a few times here when I questioned what was being presented. I know. "It’s only Wonder Woman!" I don’t care. A story must have some kind of logic to it even in a popcorn flick.

This script wasn’t horrible but it was lame. (Yes, I do distinguish between the two. For example, Batman Forever was lame but Batman & Robin was horrible.) Donna Troy wasn’t really the problem (although she didn’t have much personality). The biggest problem is the plot. I hope that the filmmakers simply ditch Dr. Psycho and his doomsday weapon and start from scratch. The old adage about the hero only being as good as their nemesis is true here. Dr. Psycho is a joke and a bad one at that; he’s a spoof of Dr. Evil who was himself a spoof of Bond villains. He makes some of the villains on the Flash TV series seem like Darth Vader in comparison. While there were a few amusing lines throughout, thankfully, this draft was not replete with bad puns and pithy comebacks.

I didn’t mind Donna Troy being the protagonist or teaming her up with Diana Prince but give Wonder Woman a story worth starring in. Sure, it could’ve been worse. It could’ve been a "fish out of water" comedy in the vein of Hercules in New York, although the dramatic prospect of "what if a female Gladiator arrived in the present day?" might not be as bad as it sounds. Heck, even setting the entire story in the ancient past, ditching the "super-hero" angle, and making a female Gladiator-type movie would be more fun than the story that’s used here. (Wait, isn’t that Xena?) In many ways, concocting a plot for Wonder Woman runs the risk of ending up with a feature film imitation of either Xena or Witchblade.

TV’s Wonder Woman & Wonder Girl

I like the almost Cinderella idea of an ordinary young woman who (excuse the phrase) "goes from zero to hero" and discovers her extraordinary past and destiny. I like the idea of a government intelligence agency that would exploit such a being but what wasn’t explored here was why Wonder Woman would allow herself to be a tool for the likes of them. I almost wouldn’t have minded the story being the Diana Prince/Steve Trevor/World War II plot but I suppose memories of Lyle Waggoner might sour that. (Sorry, Lyle.) If you’re going to tell a story about an ancient being with super-powers who is put into a contemporary setting then at least create a villain and obstacles more worthy of Wonder Woman’s skills and status.

I suppose if I was a die-hard Wonder Woman fan I might have been mortified by this "re-imagining." Instead, I was just left with a greater ambivalence about the project. This story recycled already overdone genre elements that recalled far too many (better) comic book and adventure movies. The filmmakers should just exploit the idea of an Amazon goddess for all it’s worth. They can start by creating a more menacing adversary and a more original plot, and by not embracing the influences of other movies. - STAX