brdgt | Wonder Woman (Reply)

Exclusive: Joel Silver on Wonder Woman
Source: Edward Douglas, July 22, 2006, Comingsoon.net

We've already heard repeatedly from producer Joel Silver that Joss Whedon had turned in an approved script for Wonder Woman, but we never have learned why Silver decided to pursue the rights to the DC Comics character created by William Marston, or why he picked Joss Whedon to direct it, for that matter.

In this exclusive interview with ComingSoon.net/SuperheroHype.com from the San Diego Comic-Con, where Silver was promoting his latest horror thriller The Reaping starring Hilary Swank, we asked him some of those unasked questions.

"It was after I made 'The Matrix' when I saw the response of the first tests and I realized the Trinity character was the highest-tested character," he told us. "This was before they had done 'Charlie's Angels' or 'Elektra' or any of these movies, and I thought, 'Let's just go out and try to make Wonder Woman work,' and I could never find a script that I liked, but we're close now."

And what made him think of getting Joss Whedon to write and direct it? "I just thought he would be the perfect guy to write it. I love Buffy and he's a great writer. I sat down with him and asked if he'd do it, and he wrote me a note where he passed, and in the note, he explained what the movie had to be. There was no way I was going to let him pass, so I hammered him until he said, 'Yes.'"

When asked about the general take that Joss took with the movie, Silver explained, "It's the origin story. It has mythology. Steve Trevor crashes on the island and they go back to Man's World."

"We have a script and we know where we're going," he responded when asked about where they are in the casting process. "She'll probably be someone you never saw before, because she's very young, but I think we'll have a good time with it."

Silver also responded to whether he has any worries about making the movie after the weak box office openings for other movies based on the big DC characters like Batman Begins and Superman Returns. "I love Batman and Superman, I love them both," he said. "I'm just trying to get the best version of the movie that I can. It's the trifecta. Those are the three oaks of DC Comics. I mean, Marvel Comics have tended to be hipper and cooler in many ways because they were designed to react against the DC Comics, but the DC Comics characters were the real deal, so we're trying to get this right."