While it was unfortunate to hear Michelle MacLaren (Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones) stepped down from directing Warner Bros.' DC adaptation Wonder Woman on Tuesday, it comes with a silver lining. Patty Jenkins (Monster) now takes over her duties on the new superhero movie.
Jenkins closed a deal to make the female superhero movie on Wednesday, The Hollywood Reporter reports. These turn-of-events are fairly ironic. Jenkins' name came up because she was once set to direct Thor: The Dark World back in 2011 before she left the Marvel movie due to "creative differences," only to be replaced by Game of Thrones director Alan Taylor. Now, when a fellow Game of Thrones director stepped down directing a DC adaptation due to "creative differences," Jenkins takes over to fill her shoes. Sometimes life works in funny ways.
With a director now firmly in place, it looks as though Wonder Woman's fall production start date and June 23, 2017 release can still happen. Gal Gadot is still attached to play the titular character, as she is in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and the Justice League film, while the screenplay is credited to Jason Fuchs (Pan), at least for the moment.
With Jenkins' hiring, the filmmaker becomes the second female to ever direct a superhero movie, behind Lexi Alexander who helmed 2008's Punisher: War Zone. Wonder Woman becomes her second theatrical film, as she has stuck to TV since her original Oscar-winning film. She helmed episodes of Arrested Development, Entourage, The Killing and Betrayal in the past, and she also directed a segment in the Lifetime anthology film Five and recently completed her TV movie Exposed.
Image courtesy of Jennifer Graylock/INFevents.com