Wonder Woman Returning To TV As Series

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Wonder Woman Returning To TV As Series Written And Produced By David E. Kelley

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday October 1, 2010 @ 3:00pm PDT

This has to be the highest-profile effort to bring Wonder Woman to television: One of TV's best-known creators, The Practice's David E. Kelley, has come on board to write and produce a new series project about the female superhero. The project, from Warner Bros. Television where Kelley is based, and Warner Bros.' DC Entertainment, will be taken out to the networks shortly. Kelley, who has created several female-centered shows, most notably Ally McBeal, had been interested in tackling a contemporary take on the World War II-era Amazon. He recently met with the DC team who also have been looking for ways to launch a new Wonder Woman TV franchise. Details on the reboot are being kept under wraps, and it is not clear if the new Wonder Woman aka Diana Prince will keep her signature powers and weapons, including her Lasso of Truth, her indestructible bracelets, her tiara and her invisible airplane. In the comic books, the Wonder Woman character has evolved significantly since she first appeared in a 1941 issue of All Star Comics and recently underwent a controversial makeover.

Warner Bros. TV has brought DC characters to the small screen before, most recently with the CW's Superman-themed Smallville, which is in its 10th and final season, and Fox's Human Target, which returned for a second season. But Wonder Woman has presented a challenge both for feature and TV creators. That's probably because she is the most famous female superhero in the testosterone-dominated comic world. And because she also is a big feminist icon. (Reps for Warner Bros. TV and Kelley declined to comment for this story.)

The most successful screen adaptation of the Wonder Woman comic books was the TV series The New Adventures of Wonder Woman starring Lynda Carter in the title role, which aired from 1975-1979, first on ABC and then on CBS. Carter has since become synonymous with the character. That will certainly present a challenge in casting the role if the project goes to pilot. A notable recent effort to launch a new Wonder Woman series came a decade ago with Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman creator Deborah Joy LeVine as the writer.

On the feature side, a Wonder Woman film has been in development hell for a decade at Warner Bros., with Joss Whedon at one point attached to write and direct for producer Joel Silver. In May, Warner chairman and CEO Barry Meyer confirmed that a new Wonder Woman feature is in development. There has been a concerted effort on part of Time Warner lately to better mine the DC properties across different platforms. The film division is expected to announce a slate of DC movies by the end of the year that would probably include Wonder Woman.
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Source: Wonder Woman Returning To TV As Series Written And Produced By David E. Kelley Deadline.com
 
Entertainment Weekly is reporting that NBC has picked up David E. Kelley's new "Wonder Woman" pilot after all! The network was the final one to pass on the show over a week ago, but that was before the new regime headed by chairman Robert Greenblatt was officially in place in light of the impending Comcast takeover. The magazine reports:

One factor that seemed to have sunk the Wonder Woman project the first time around was the price of rebooting the series, with the studio requiring a rich license fee to bring the iconic character back to life. But then, NBC has been down this road before: It rebooted Bionic Woman. Kelley’s take incorporated the superhero’s signature lasso, cuffs, and plane in the script, and insiders said it was a serious, non-campy take on the DC Comics character.

Now the big question is who should play Wonder Woman?
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So from what i heard this is going to be an "interesting" take on Wonder Woman
 
I think they'll be better off with casting an unknown who will appreciate the opportunity. They lucked out w/ Lynda Carter who had the body frame to fit the role and she took it seriously.

AND it would be nice if they cast Lynda as the Queen mother or gave her a cameo as a goddess or something. Still, I've enjoyed David E. Kelly's work before, namely "Ally McBeal". He's creative, so I'm willing to give him a try.
 
Details On Wonder Woman From Leaked Pilot Script Sound Disastrous! || FusedFilm.com


Well Wonder Woman fans it looks like your worst fears have come true. The concept of the new Wonder Woman series from David E. Kelley may be poking fun at the core concept of Wonder Woman’s true femininity and feminism with quippy lines like “you, go girl” and other interesting things to try and modernize the character for today’s audiences. Bleeding Cool.com has the scoop but make it clear they give you the main cuts of the show without spoiling really anything.

Deadline Hollywood’s description is out too.

“[A] reinvention of the iconic DC comic in which Wonder Woman — aka Diana Prince — is a vigilante crime fighter in L.A. but also a successful corporate executive and a modern woman trying to balance all of the elements of her extraordinary life.”

So here it is the details from the upcoming Wonder Woman series for NBC, which has McG attached to direct and no star yet.

There’s a Myndi Mayer, herein portrayed as Diana’s BFF.
There’s a scene with comics character Etta Candy, a role that’s pretty much written like a job offer to Melissa McCarthy.
Long ago, government man Steve Trevor crashed onto Wonder Woman’s island and brought her back to New York, but now they’ve split up. She still loves him, though, and it’s obvious that their relationship is going to be a focus.
Diana might not have an invisible jet (if she did, I didn’t see it) but she has a whole rainbow’s worth of over coloured aircraft.
She has the lasso, and those bracelets with which she deflects bullets.
Her nemesis is Veronica Cale, who in this continuity is an evil scientist and rival businesswoman with a secret, nefarious plan that you’ll probably guess ahead of time.

The site says that her typical Diana Prince alter ego is there but she also has a third disguise and a day job as Diana Themyscyra, the head of Themiscyra industries. While little Ms. Prince is a disguise, it is well known in this world that Ms. T and Wonder W are the same – think Tony Stark and Iron Man from the end of their first film on, hence the third disguise, man that seems complicated as crap and almost unnecessary, somebody call Joss Whedon to fix this series or loan out some of his Buffy writing friends. Lastly, the site reports that there is a CSI-ish group of science-nerd 20-somethings living in her basement that dance to Kanye West and will doubtlessly help Diana solve any number of crimes in further episodes – guess we found the scoobies.

All in all this series sounds like it was written for The CW, but they couldn’t afford it. Kelley seems to have taken thing from classic Buffy, mixed it with the old series while trying to craft his own original things into it. Now keep in mind we do not know what will change from this to what we eventually see. That draft that Bleeding Cool has could be fake, who really knows but I have to say this is about what I predicted for this new incarnation of Wonder Woman for TV.

The current comic story has rebooted Wonder Woman and made her a street-tough, no-nonsense, leather-clad hero. That’s not the Wonder Woman mainstream audiences know but my question is did audiences really know the off-kilter world of Clark Kent as teen the way they presented it in Smallville, perhaps but most likely not, thus why not go that route with Wonder Woman, because that is a show i’d rather see.

Thoughts fans?
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Well looks like this isn't going to be so much a Wonder Woman Tv show as Ally McBeal with Wonder Woman elements, Why must mainstream TV hurt the things i love ?
 
so he's disappointed me tremendously. he wants to cherry pick characters, plot elements and moments from the classic George Perez era of the WW comic and the early half of John Byrne's run after that. He's making her this frakenstein-ish mash up of feminist icon/ally mcbeal retread(who many felt was the DEATH feminism)/ and an ill fated tony stark knock off??

and VERONICA CALE as her greatest foe? REALLY? everyone who has read her book knows THAT title belongs to Ares or Circe! Veronica was a bitter, twisted, sociopath with deep seated jealousy issues and that made her dangerous yes but by no means was she WW's "greatest foe"
 
the only thing that could be worst then this bombing (which with the Cape bombing too will probably kill the superhero TV craze for a good while before we get a good show out of it) would be it succeeding and setting the tone for Wonder Woman comics and any potential movie franchise
 
Black King said:
the only thing that could be worst then this bombing (which with the Cape bombing too will probably kill the superhero TV craze for a good while before we get a good show out of it) would be it succeeding and setting the tone for Wonder Woman comics and any potential movie franchise
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so why doesnt he just adapt (loyaly) the George Perez era of WW? George Perez is to WW what Chris Claremont is to the Xmen quite seriously.

Diana Prince is NOT a female "Tony Stark" and she never was. Wonder Woman is not some "street level crime fighter" like Batman. Can we get somebody who UNDERSTANDS the established material for WW and uses it WITHOUT trying to add all this extra bullshit that doesnt work? Even CASUAL WW fans are calling bullshit over this stuff here (ive been looking around the net to see reactions lol)

Its a testimony that the original WW series is the standard by which all future media appearences of WW are now measured 30+ years after its last original episode. Lynda Carter is synonymous w/ WW as well which has made casting notoriously difficult.

Its SAD though that her counter parts (Supes & Bat) who each had shows on TV during that same era have seen several successfull TV reboots and each now have two film franchises.

I really thought Kelley would be the ticket because he did such a good job w/ Ally Mcbeal, The Practice & Boston Public...but after seeing this??? I'm definately not on board.
 
Vilandra said:
Except those film franchises SUCK lol
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LOL! i havent even bothered w/ the new batman films. i was done after batman returns cause the ones that followed that one were HORRIBLE.

and i saw the supes film...it was a nice affectionate homage to christopher reeves and his films (imo) but that girl playing lois lane was terrible.
 
Dude, that movie doesn't even make good SENSE lol. And if you're going to just copy Chris Reeve, just re-release the ORIGINAL movie lol
 
well i didnt say it made SENSE :p LOL :haha:

i was just saying i thought it showed an affectionate film wide nod. i like stuff like that...i feel like if you're going to "remake" something, respect the material. there's gotta be a way to make a good "remake" and respect what made the remake possible right? and yet...how often does that happen? :haha: but i wasnt clamoring for a sequel to this one by anymeans lol and again, that girl playing lois lane? garbage!
 
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Well I felt it was too close to the original story, and reproduced it in a bad way. It would have been better imho to make a few respectful nods in a new story.

BUT I'm super excited for the new Supes movie with Henry Cavill!
 
Part of the problem is that even with comics entering mainstream and become "cool" with everything being adapted to movies and TV , a lot of what makes the books good is still seen as silly or too campy for audiences that don't know the material. They know that people like us that read comics, know the character, play the video games and such are going to watch but they also want to get the people that take one look at comics and go "no no too silly" which personally i blame Batman & Robin

There's a threshold that every single superhero film and (live action) series is now aware of. Its always been there but it wasn't until Batman & Robin with it's Bat-nipple suits and the Bat credit card that movie makers realized it was there. Once you step over line a movie is too childish for adults and kills the franchise. Every superhero movie now lives in mortal fear of that line (with some good reason) but the film makers are so afraid of the line they aren't pushing what they can do with a character or property
 
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