Talk about the Amazon Princess.


Whedon Wooed For Wonder

Producer Joel Silver confirmed to SCI FI Wire that he is wooing Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon to write and direct a new film version of Wonder Woman. "I'm trying," Silver said in an interview at WonderCon in San Francisco on Feb. 19. "I'm trying to work a deal with Joss. ... I was just in the other room [where Whedon was talking about his upcoming SF movie, Serenity]. I don't know if I could work that out. It's a complicated deal to do, but I would love him to do it. It would be great if he could do it."
Silver (the Matrix films and the upcoming House of Wax) said that Whedon, an avowed comic fanatic and current author of Marvel's Astonishing X-Men series, came to him with a new twist on the venerable character. "It's just a great, legendary comic-book hero, and it's one that has never been kind of brought back to life after Lynda Carter [who starred in the 1970s Wonder Woman TV series]. I mean, it's a reinvention. ... Tim Burton reinvented Batman after Adam West, and ... [director Richard] Donner reinvented Superman after George Reeves. It's time to do that to Wonder Woman. It's a thing that could be great if it's done great. ... The idea is to try to find a way to make it, and I thought Joss has a great idea, because he understands a kind of female superhero character, and also he's great at what he does. So I'm trying to find the best way to do it. ... We're working our way through it."

Whedon Signs For Wonder Woman

Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon has signed on to write and direct the movie version of Wonder Woman, Warner Brothers announced. Producer Joel Silver first confirmed that he was in talks with Whedon to helm the Warner Brothers feature film in an interview with SCI FI Wire last month.
"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 in a statement. "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."
In his own statement, Whedon said: "Wonder Woman is the most iconic female heroine of our time, but in a way, no one has met her yet. 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."
Silver and Leonard Goldberg will produce the live-action feature, based on the DC Comics character created by William Moulton Marston. No start date has been set.
Whedon created Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which ran for seven seasons on The WB and UPN, and co-created the WB spinoff series Angel, which finished its five-season run last year. He also wrote the screenplay for Toy Story.
Whedon is currently completing Serenity, a movie he wrote and directed based on his canceled Fox TV series Firefly, about a ragtag crew of civil war survivors 500 years in the future. Serenity opens Sept. 30; it is being released by Universal Pictures, which is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.

o Ain't It Cool News reported that producer Joel Silver may make an announcement concerning his proposed Wonder Woman film in two days, possibly announcing the hiring of Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon to write and direct.

Wonder Woman Reinvented

Joel Silver, producer of the upcoming comic-book adaptation Wonder Woman, told SCI FI Wire that he gave writer/director Joss Whedon carte blanche to reinvent the classic superhero. "I made Joss' deal," Silver said in an interview. "Joss Whedon is writing the script. He's finishing Serenity, and when that movie is done he's going to turn his attention toward the script. He's got fantastic ideas."
Silver said that the film will surpass previous efforts to create female superheroes, which have historically met with poor critical and commercial reception. "They were terrible movies," Silver said. "I think this is a big constructionist picture. It's [the] property of Warner Brothers, and the character is the real deal if we do it right. Joss has a fantastic take on the story, and if it works the way I think it's going to work, it's going to be fantastic."
Whedon is best known for creating another female superhero, TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Silver said that his own success creating a female hero in the person of The Matrix's Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) inspired him to believe a Wonder Woman film could succeed. "When we made the first Matrix, I came out of the first test screening, and the numbers for Trinity were so much higher than anything else in the movie," Silver said. "People loved that character. I came out of there and said to the studio, 'This is interesting.' I said to the boys [Matrix directors the Wachowski brothers], 'Why don't we make a Trinity movie?' They said, 'No.' They had something else in mind. So I figured we should take Wonder Woman and try something, and [Warner Brothers] said fine. I never really felt I got it 'til now."

Who would play Wonder Woman? To bad Pamela Anderson is blond, she look great running around in that outfit!!!

Someone hot & brunette hopefully.

Oz Tops For Wonder Woman

Producer Joel Silver told the Australian Associated Press that Australia tops his list among shooting locations for his upcoming Wonder Woman movie. "When I make Wonder Woman I'll probably do it in Australia," Silver (House of Wax) told the AAP, according to a report in The Age. "I love working in Australia. It makes great sense to me."
Silver shot all three Matrix films in Oz, as well as Ghost Ship and Wax.
Silver added that he has no start date or star yet for Wonder Woman, for which director Joss Whedon is completing the script. Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) is also putting finishing touches on his upcoming SF film Serenity.

Wonder Set In Modern Day

Joss Whedon, writer and director of the upcoming Wonder Woman movie, told Now Playing magazine that the film will be set in the modern world. The original story "goes back to World War II," Whedon told the magazine. But, he added, "this will be in the modern day, but Wonder Woman herself will never be in the modern day."
Who will play the part of Princess Diana? Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) said that he hasn't even begun to think about that as he finishes up his upcoming SF movie, Serenity, on which he's making his feature-film directorial debut.
"[Casting] is the last thing on my mind, and I'm happy to say it's the last thing on Warner Brothers' and [producer] Joel [Silver's] mind, too," Whedon said. "We're like, 'Let's write the part! Then we'll have a better idea of who's good for it.' And we've talked about whether it should be someone famous or an unknown. Ultimately there are advantages to both, so nobody's thinking about that. ... Except everybody."
As for the story, Whedon said: "She doesn't have a villain as recognizable as [a Lex Luthor]. In fact, she doesn't have a lot of things as recognizable as a lot of the other heroes have. But that's not a problem, simply because she's basically based on Greek mythology, which opens up a world of interesting possibilities. She's very different from anybody who might have been bitten by a spider or had his parents killed in an alley."
Surprisingly, Whedon admitted that he hasn't begun writing Wonder Woman yet. "There hasn't even actually been a whole deal signed and everything [for Wonder Woman]. I'm working on it in the way that I always work on everything, which is that I think about it while I'm doing other things. But right now we're in the final stages of wrapping up Serenity, and that's where my focus is. The reason I was able to take the Wonder Woman gig was that they don't have a release date and they don't have a schedule, and that means I have time to sit back and get it right. It will happen, but it's not like 'Bang! You're 10 weeks under the gun.' The starting gun has not fired, but I always jump the gun anyway. When you have a product that rich you can't help but think of ideas for it, the same way I think of ideas for the Serenity sequel that may never happen. We don't turn it off." Serenity opens Sept. 30. http://www.nowplayingmag.com/content/view/1532/2/

Carter Open To Wonder Cameo
Lynda Carter, who played Diana Prince/Wonder Woman in the 1970s television series Wonder Woman, told SCI FI Wire that she'd welcome the opportunity to appear in the big-screen version to be written and directed by Joss Whedon. "There is actually this thing on the Internet, like a sign-up campaign, that says, 'We want Lynda in Wonder Woman,'" Carter said in an interview while promoting her latest movie, the SF family comedy Sky High. "It's very cute, very sweet. I think it would be great. I'd love to do it."
Carter, who has said that she'd be interested in playing Diana's/Wonder Woman's mother in the Whedon feature, added: "I just hope that the concept is one that's really about the characters themselves. And I hope they cast [Diana/Wonder Woman] as someone who's got a real heart. If they can do the movie with a heart, no matter what they do, they'll be OK." Whedon is still writing his script for Wonder Woman, but has said he would start the process this fall, after launching Serenity, the movie based on his canceled SF TV series Firefly.
Carter played the superhero for three years on the hit TV show. She admitted that she has talked to Warner Brothers studio executives about how she might be a part of the new film. She hasn't talked to Whedon or producer Joel Silver, but added: "I have talked to some of the people at Warner Brothers, and I don't even know if they want to go there. They may be terrified of it. They may not want to have any nod, because of obvious comparisons, and fortunately, ... no matter what they do, there will always be a comparison."

Carter said that she's willing to do a cameo. "It would depend on the role. I don't think I would be interested in doing something gratuitous, just to do it, just to say, 'Oh there's Lynda Carter.' But if there was a role in which I could kind of tie up loose ends, that would be cool."

Carter A Wonder In Sky High
Television Wonder Woman Lynda Carter told SCI FI Wire that she'd resisted all previous attempts to get her either to play or to parody the iconic character, but added that she couldn't resist when approached by makers of the SF family comedy Sky High. The film casts her as Principal Powers, who runs Sky High, a school for the children of superheroes. "I think it will really appeal to the kids that are my daughter's age, and she's 14," Carter said in an interview. "It's this idea, not unlike with Wonder Woman, where there's this secret person inside of you wanting to be discovered or wanting to go out and discover."
Carter added: "I really think you feel that, especially in your early teens. There's that 'goddess' or 'god-within' feeling. So I think the story feeds on that. It's a beautiful movie, because you start off with the hero class. When these kids hit puberty, their superhero powers emerge. Some kids go to the hero class and, if they don't have very spectacular powers, they go to the sidekick class. It's hysterically funny. And I think that Kurt Russell and Kelly Preston, who play parents [of the central teen boy] in the movie, are wonderful."
Carter said that, considering the success of recent comic-book-based movies, the timing may be perfect for Sky High. "I don't know what it is, but there must be this collective consciousness," Carter said. "I don't think it's because people spy and see what's on anybody else's plates, but there are all these movies coming out now about superheroes. You've got Fantastic Four, Batman Begins and all these superhero things. I think it's great." Sky High opens July 29.

Treating Wonder Like Batman
Joss Whedon, who is writing and will direct the upcoming Wonder Woman movie, told SCI FI Wire that he wants to give the venerable franchise the Batman Begins treatment, making sure fans get what they want: the costume, the bracelets, the lasso, maybe even the invisible jet.
"What's exciting is, like, Batman Begins basically really did a wonderful job explaining exactly why he was a bat and why he had everything on his costume that he did," Whedon said in an interview. "That's the joy of doing an origin story of Wonder Woman. Why does she wear the bracelets? Why does she use the lasso? Like, ... where does all that stuff come from? ... And I have answers for all of that, and it's really fun. So it's not a reinvention like, 'Oh, she's going to dress like Trinity [from The Matrix].'"
Whedon is in the process of writing the script for the movie, which has yet to be cast. "I want to see Wonder Woman as I know her and see her, [and] not ... [just her] star-spangled panties. But she wears the Wonder Woman outfit, and she has the bracelets and all the accoutrements. ... The lasso and, if I can make it work for the plot, the invisible plane. I have a take on it that I think is cool. It's just I'm structuring the plot, and I've got to find a place for it. But I think people want it, and I think I can do it without ... it being campy, believe it or not. And I respect those things. I, in fact, love them."

Whedon: Expect Future Buffy TV
Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, told SCI FI Wire that he definitely plans to revisit the "Buffyverse" in a future, unspecified TV project. "I think it's realistic," Whedon said in an interview while promoting his upcoming SF movie, Serenity. "I like my chances. But it is absolutely still too amorphous for me to make any kind of announcement about it. I'm out there trying, and there's other people trying, to put it together. But until something falls in place, I really can't say."
Whedon is especially keen on doing a movie centering on the vampire character of Spike (James Marsters). "Let's say it's a good jumping-off point," he said. As for Marsters' reported comments that he is growing too old to play the eternally youthful former bloodsucker, Whedon said: "Well, we're working. We're trying. I know. ... James is in very good shape. Keep working out, James."

Whedon Is A Goner
Universal Pictures has paid seven figures for Goner, a supernatural thriller spec script that Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) wrote and will direct, Variety reported.
Mary Parent and Scott Stuber will produce. The studio premiered Whedon's directorial debut, Serenity, on Sept. 22 at Universal City Walk, and the movie opens to the public on Sept. 30.
Whedon was cryptic in describing the project. "It's the story of a young woman's journey that involves a great deal of horror and some heroics," Whedon told the trade paper. "It's certainly darker than Serenity, and there are a lot of left turns along the way. It is something I had in mind for a while, and it just poured out of me when I finished my film."
Whedon is writing and will direct a Wonder Woman movie for Warner Brothers.
Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.

Dushku Adds Her Name To Wonder Woman List
Sexy Eliza Dushku has come from nowhere to lead the race for the new Wonder Woman movie.
After months of speculation, the actress has declared she wants the superheroine role - and experts feel sure she's a leading contender because she's a favourite actress of writer/director Joss Whedon.
Dushku, who worked with Whedon on cult TV show Buffy The Vampire Slayer and spin-off Angel, says she'd like to be considered for the role.
Speaking to film website MovieHole.net at Saturday's Wizard World Convention in Boston, Massachusetts, Dushku said, "Joss is doing a little movie called Wonder Woman. I'd slap on the Dukes for that!"
Others reportedly in contention for the Wonder Woman lead include Dushku's former Buffy co-star Charisma Carpenter, Kim Basinger and Mischa Barton.

Dushku Wants Wonder Woman
Eliza Dushku, who played the vampire slayer Faith in the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, told attendees at the Wizard World convention in Boston on Oct. 1 that she would love to be considered for the main role in Buffy creator Joss Whedon's next film, Wonder Woman. "I would follow that man anywhere," she said in a panel session. "He's a genius. He writes women and he gets women. It's not that I'm done with TV, but I hear Joss is doing a little movie called Wonder Woman [laughs]. I'd slap on the dukes for that."
Dushku last appeared on television in the series Tru Calling, which lasted for a season and a half on Fox. Her next film will be the drama Nobel Son, in which she plays an insane-asylum escapee alongside Alan Rickman, Bill Pullman, Danny Devito and Peter Boyle.

Last week, Eliza Dusku appeared on Page 4 of Life & Style and page 94 of OK! Magazine.

Wonder Script Almost Done
Writer/director Joss Whedon told SCI FI Wire that he's probably going to turn in his script for the feature-film version of Wonder Woman sometime this coming week, and added that it will feature all of the expected gadgets and costume gimmicks from the DC Comics franchise. Whedon spoke in an interview at the star-studded Los Angeles premiere of Slither, which stars Whedon's Serenity star Nathan Fillion.
"I'm probably going to turn it in in a few days," Whedon said of his Wonder Woman script. "It's coming along. ... There will be all of the expected stuff. Of course there will be the bracelets; there will be the invisible jet, the lasso, all of that."
Whedon likened the character to another one of his creations, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, adding: "It's about girls maturing, a rite of passage, that kind of thing."
Whedon said it's too early to speculate on casting for the project. He will be turning the script in to Warner Brothers and hopes to begin production later this year.
Asked about further installments of Serenity, Whedon shrugged his shoulders.

Lindsay? Cameron? Mischa? Who Should Be The Next Wonder Woman?
Some say unknown should nab role in Joss Whedon adaptation, due next year.
by Farrah Weinstein, with additional reporting by Jennifer Vineyard
Bulletproof bracelets, electric-blue highlights, a gold bustier and an invisible jet — sure, those are the accessories. But a woman needs a lot more than that to fill Wonder Woman's red boots. A remake has been in the works for years, but the question remains: Who will take over the magic lasso from 1970s phenom (and former Miss America) Lynda Carter?
"I can't think of a single person, but it should probably be an unknown," Carter told MTV News. "She doesn't have to be comic book-y, because you've got the costume. When I got the role, I made several decisions: One was that I wanted women to love her as much as, if not more than, men, so I always played her with a feminist point of view. Not against men, but for women — with a vulnerability, a kindness, a camaraderie. So someone who's got that down, that's who I'd want to see."
The decision is in the hands of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" creator Joss Whedon, who announced in March 2005 that he would be writing the screenplay and directing the latest installment of the superhero flick (see "Joss Whedon Vows He Won't Do Anything Silly With Wonder Woman").
And he sure is taking his sweet time with it. "I'm still writing it," Whedon said in a recent interview with Fanboy Radio. "I know that sounds ridiculous. It sounds like at this point it must be 'remembrance of Wonder Woman past.' Or it must be 1,000 pages long, but it's not. I'm just slogging away. I'm the sort of person who likes to do everything very meticulously."
With every day, it gets harder and harder to dodge the inevitable question: Who will she be? "If there's one thing I regret about taking this job, [it's that question]," Whedon said. "I go to dinner, and people are like, 'So, who's playing Wonder Woman?' and I'm like, 'Can we talk about something else?' "
Combine the wit of Jean Grey in "X-Men," the physical skills of "Elektra," the wrath of Alice in "Resident Evil" and the spunk of that cheerleader in "Heroes," and you've got your recipe for Wonder Woman, the first female superhero to hold her own in the land of men.
So for now, let's ... wonder. Kate (Evangeline Lilly) from "Lost," perhaps? Or how about Kate Nauta, who plays pistol-whipping Lola in "Transporter 2"? Lindsay Lohan said it would be "cool" to play the star-crowned demigod. Mischa Barton, Eliza Dushku and Katie Holmes are all rumored to be interested. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Sandra Bullock were reportedly thought to be too old. And apparently Lucy Lawless was offered the role and turned it down. It was announced in March that Kate Beckinsale got the part, but the announcement was retracted, with Beckinsale claiming she had already "embarrassed" her daughter enough (see "Beckinsale Doesn't Have Right Undies To Play Wonder Woman"). Right.
"She is an Amazon and a princess and somebody who believes very strongly in what she is," Whedon said. "It's not because she's a feminist that she's intimidating, it's because she's freakin' Wonder Woman, and she can kill you with a pinkie."
Wonder Woman — whose alter ego's name is Diana Prince — has been a female icon since her creation in the 1940s, and she stands as one of the strongest female characters in the DC Comics universe.
Bernie Saavedra, owner of Gotham City Comics in New York, also hopes that an unknown is cast as Wonder Woman. "The casting is the most important prerequisite," he said. "I wouldn't cast any somebody — when they put George Clooney as Batman, he brought nothing to the role."
Still, unknowns can be tricky, and Saavedra uses "Superman Returns," with actor Brandon Routh, as an example of casting by looks and physique alone. "Even though [Routh] looked the part, he had no zest," he said. "It's a tough role. I would cast an unknown with a lot of potential."
Getting the casting wrong can also risk killing the popularity of the comic book series. "You can destroy the original fanbase of a character by getting it wrong," Saavedra said. " 'Hellblazer' ['Constantine'], 'Blade' and 'Punisher.' I used to sell 50-80 comics of them a month. After the movies, I'm down to less than a quarter of those sales for those comics."
Wonder Woman is expected for release sometime next year. For a little (temporary) closure, we offer our top choices for the role:
Charisma Carpenter: She's worked closely with Whedon before (as chatterbox Cordelia on "Buffy" and "Angel"), and she's kept a low profile lately, so it could be refreshing to see her again. "It hasn't even gotten so far as auditions," said her rep. "It's only in discussions at this point." On ImagineCasting.com, Carpenter is top of the list, beating out other contenders like Minnie Driver and Monica Bellucci.
Priyanka Chopra: One look at this raven-haired Bollywood beauty and you can just imagine her kicking butt. The former Miss India is currently starring in a superhero movie called "Krrish" and knows kung fu. We're sold!
Megan Fox: We're psyched to see Fox work the robot gear as Mikaela in her next flick, "Transformers." She hasn't auditioned for the Wonder Woman role, but she would be overjoyed to play it. "It would be flattering," her rep said. "Megan would love to do it. She's a big fan. And she can definitely fit in the suit."
Morena Baccarin: If you're a Joss Whedon fan, then you'll recognize Brazilian-born Baccarin from "Serenity" and "Firefly." Like Carpenter, she can be told what to do, where to sit and how to smile. It's almost as if Whedon has been training her for this opportunity her whole career.
Evangeline Lilly: Sure, she might be shooting "Lost" for what seems like forever (or she could be killed off next week), but it would be nice for Lilly to prove her acting chops beyond television. A movie poster of Lilly in a pair of starry knickers beats the cover of TV Guide any day.
Cameron Diaz: She kicked butt in "Charlie's Angels" as a blonde. Now she's channeling Wonder Woman as a brunette.
Denise Richards: Hey, anyone who throws laptops from hotel windows ...
http://www.vh1.com/movies/news/articles/15...006/story.jhtml

Bobby asked me to post this bit of info for you guys. :ph43r:


Apparently Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the only wonder woman in Joss Whedon's life.

The writer-director has officially dropped out of Warner Bros. and Silver Pictures' feature-film adaptation of DC Comics' Wonder Woman, blaming the usual creative differences for his depature.

Whedon broke the bad news in a post on the fan site whedonesque.com, saying the split was amicable and he decided to bail to help the chances of the film getting off the drawing board.

"I had a take on the film that, well, nobody liked," he wrote. "We just saw different movies, and at the price range this kind of movie hangs in, that's never gonna work," Buffy's creator said. "Non-sympatico. It happens all the time."

The iconic female superhero was originally an Amazonian princess named Diana who comes the U.S. during World War II to use her physical skills and accessories (bullet-deflecting bracelets, truth-inducing golden lariat, invisible plane) to help defeat the Nazis. The character was a fixture in the Superfriends 'toon and spawned a campy, standalone 1970s hit television series starring Lynda Carter.

Warners had hoped Whedon would be able to update Wonder Woman, paying him a reported $2 million to $3 million to develop the story.

"Everybody knows how long I was taking, what a struggle that script was, and though I felt good about what I was coming up with, it was never gonna be a simple slam-dunk," wrote Whedon. "I like to think it rolled around the rim a little bit, but others may have differing views."

Whedon and the studio also had trouble casting the lead role. And although former Buffy stars
Sarah Michelle Gellar and Charisma Carpenter were among those rumored to be in contention to don the tiara, Whedon said, "I never had an actress picked out, or even a consistent frontrunner. I didn't have time to waste on casting when I was so busy air-balling on the script."

His exit comes less than a week after Warner Bros. bought a Wonder Woman spec script, set in the 1940s, from screenwriters Matthew Jennison and Brent Strickland. Per trade reports, the studio snapped up the rights mainly to shield itself from any future plagiarism lawsuits. The Hollywood Reporter also quotes "insiders" saying that producers liked elements within the duo's script, which they were sending around as a sample to secure future writing gigs.

A Warner Bros. spokeswoman confirmed Whedon's depature to E! Online but declined additional comment.

Whedon has several other projects in the pipeline, including the thriller Goners for Universal and an adaptation of Marvel Comics Runaways, about superpowered teens. He's also supervising Dark Horse Comics' new Buffy story.

Meanwhile, in related comic book happenings, filmmaker Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum) is feeling the need for speed, taking over the reins on Warners' The Flash.

He replaces David Goyer, who is best known for writing the screenplays for Blade and Batman Begins.

In a message on his MySpace page, Goyer wrote an obituary of sorts for his version of the exceptionally speedy Justice Leaguer, who apart from a short-lived TV series in the '90s, is another DC favorite yet to hit the big time in Hollywood.

"I am sad to say that my version of The Flash is dead at WB. The god's honest truth is that WB and myself simply couldn't agree on what would make for a cool Flash film," he wrote (sounding a lot like Whedon). "I'm quite proud of the screenplay I turned in. I threw my heart into it ,and I genuinely think it would've been the basis of a groundbreaking film. But as of now, the studio is heading off in a completely different direction."

Goyer's script was apparently too dark for executives, mining similar territory as Batman Begins by focusing on the "legacy aspect of the hero," which involved the different men who assumed the identity of the title character.

Aside from his current blockbuster hit with Ben Stiller, Levy's big-time credits include The Pink Panther remake and Cheaper by the Dozen movies with
Steve Martin.

Per the Reporter, Levy is not turning The Flash into a comedy, but rather will oversee a new draft of the script that will incorporate elements of Goyer's work while giving the character a lighter touch in the vein of 20th Century Fox's Fantastic Four.
Ryan Reynolds is reportedly in the, um, running to play the speedster.

As for Goyer, the go-to guy for comic-book adaptations has plenty to keep him busy. Aside from creating Blade: The Series, he's also been hired to cowrite the upcoming Batman sequel, The Dark Knight, as well as hatch stories for future feature films about Thor and Captain America.

[URL=http://news. yahoo.com/ s/eonline/ 20070206/ en_movies_ eo/d3ca4f398a4a_ 4c11_ae23_ 09a415b0a0e3]

Smulders Open To Wonder Woman
Cobie Smulders, the brunette Canadian actress who stars in CBS' How I Met Your Mother, told SCI FI Wire that she'd be open to auditioning for the title role in Joss Whedon's proposed Wonder Woman movie. She first broached the idea in the February issue of Esquire magazine, which is on sale now.
"It's funny," Smulders said in an interview at CBS' winter press tour in Pasadena, Calif., last week, "when you do like an interview for two hours, and then they take the Wonder Woman quote. ... My boyfriend ... [is] really into comic books, and ... he was the one who kind of said, 'Hey, it would be cool if you could do that.' And I don't know. Who knows? I'll go in for it if it comes up, but it's definitely not, like, in the works or anything."
Smulders said that the idea has come up before. "I think it's just the curse of having brown hair in this industry and being an actress," she said. "I think it's just a general, like, question that everyone's going to pose their clients."
Whedon, creator of TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and director of the feature film Serenity, has been hired to write and possibly direct a Wonder Woman movie, based on the DC Comics franchise.

Joss Whedon Won't Write, Direct 'Wonder Woman' — Despite Doing 'A Lot Of Legwork'
'I had a take on the film that, well, nobody liked,' he explains in Web post.
by Jennifer Vineyard
After working on the script for nearly two years, Joss Whedon announced Friday (February 2) that he is no longer attached to write and direct the new big-screen adaptation of "Wonder Woman." wrote on his Web site under the heading, "Satin Tights No Longer." "I had a take on the film that, well, nobody liked. Hey, not that complicated."
Earlier this week, Warner Bros. and Silver Pictures bought a "Wonder Woman" spec script — featuring a story set during World War II — by newcomers Matthew Jennison and Brent Strickland. Sources said the companies bought the spec script as a pre-emptive legal measure to take it off the market and protect them against any possible similarities between the script Whedon penned and the one written by Jennison and Strickland. That script will now act as the replacement to Whedon's (see "Joss Whedon Vows He Won't Do Anything Silly With Wonder Woman" and "An Open Letter To 'Wonder Woman' Director Joss Whedon").
"Let me stress that everybody at the studio and Silver Pictures were cool and professional," Whedon wrote. "We just saw different movies, and at the price range this kind of movie hangs in, that's never gonna work. Non-sympatico. It happens all the time."
This might come as a shock to those who thought the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" creator was the perfect man for the job — after all, strong female characters who kick butt are kind of his calling card. So what would Whedon's "Wonder Woman" have looked like? While he was still attached to the project, Whedon told MTV News that he planned to tell the story of the origin of Wonder Woman, using "a lot of the mythos from the very oldest comics" and ample amounts of Greek mythology.
"There's been a lot of good runs on the comic," he said, "but there hasn't been ... [an] origin issue ... one you can plop down and say, 'Make this.' The story hasn't been told exactly the way it needs to be told in the movie, so I have to do a lot of legwork myself, and make it seem like I didn't, and make it seem natural to her world."
Instead of World War II, Whedon's story was going to place Wonder Woman in modern times, to make her a "viable modern-day figure" and showcase her inability to fit into society. "She's a fish out of water. It's basically 'Splash,' " he joked. "I just took the script from 'Splash' and changed some of the names."
Whedon had hoped to take some of what could be considered campy aspects of the Wonder Woman persona — the bracelets, the lasso, the invisible jet — explain why they exist and make them "absolutely central to the entire movie." "The bracelets and the lasso are so much part of who she is and the journey she goes through," Whedon said. "They're not just cute and they're definitely not silly and she's not going to spin to change her clothes."
Because he was taking so long to deliver a version of the script that the studio — and producer Joel Silver — wanted, Whedon wrote that he realized, "it was never gonna be a simple slam-dunk." But one of the agreements he made with the studio was that "there was no schedule of any kind," so he was free to take as long as he needed to write the script. "This may have come back to bite me slightly, as I have struggled and struggled to get it done," Whedon told MTV News. "I've been whining about it quite a lot. I'd like to perhaps not be remembered for the whining."
In his post, Whedon said while he was disappointed that he was no longer affiliated with the project after all this time, he was also relieved that he wasn't in some "horrible limbo of development." "So I'm a free man," he wrote.
Which means, "I never have to answer THAT question again!" he wrote, obviously a reference to the tirelessly posed question of which actress will fill Wonder Woman's shoes (see "Lindsay? Cameron? Mischa? Who Should Be The Next Wonder Woman?"). To illustrate his frustration at being asked the question, Whedon had relayed this anecdote to MTV News: "I literally had lunch with a studio executive where I told him, 'It's driving me crazy, all everyone wants to know is who I'm casting, and I'm not finished with the script,' and he said, 'Yeah, so who are you going to cast?' 'And it's actually driving me crazy, where I have to seek therapy because of it.' 'So who do you want to cast? Come on, it's fun to play.' Oh my God, he won't stop. It's the only thing I ever get asked. I'm more tired of it than you can possibly imagine."
So to close the book on the subject, Whedon wrote in his announcement, "Finally and forever: I never had an actress picked out, or even a consistent front-runner. ... All right, it was Cobie Smulders [from TV's 'How I Met Your Mother']. Sorry, Cobes."
http://www.vh1.com/movies/news/articles/15...202/story.jhtml

WB Seeing Another Woman
Warner Brothers is in the process of acquiring a spec script for a Wonder Woman film by newcomers Matthew Jennison and Brent Strickland, despite already having a deal with Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon to write and direct a film based on the DC Comics character, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Sources told the trade paper that the purchase is a pre-emptive measure intended to keep the script off the market and to protect itself against any legal action prompted by similarities between the two scripts. The Jennison-Strickland script is reportedly set against the backdrop of World War II, while Whedon's script is set in the present day.
Producer Joel Silver, who is overseeing the project at Warner Brothers, has no interest in making a period Wonder Woman, sources said. But executives at the studio were impressed by Jennison and Strickland's writing. Representatives for Warner Brothers and Silver Pictures declined comment.

Whedon Quits Wonder Woman
Joss Whedon, who had been developing a big-screen adaptation of DC Comics superhero Wonder Woman for Warner Brothers and Silver Pictures, parted ways with the studio and production company on the project, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Whedon (creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly) announced the news on Feb. 2 on the Whedonesque.com fan Web site.
"I had a take on the film that, well, nobody liked," Whedon wrote. "Hey, not that complicated. Let me stress first that everybody at the studio and Silver Pictures were cool and professional. We just saw different movies, and at the price range this kind of movie hangs in, that's never gonna work. Non-sympatico. It happens all the time. I don't think any of us expected it to this time, but it did. Everybody knows how long I was taking, what a struggle that script was, and though I felt good about what I was coming up with, it was never gonna be a simple slam-dunk. I like to think it rolled around the rim a little bit, but others may have differing views."
Whedon came on board the project in March 2005 and was paid $2 million-$3 million to develop and write the adaptation, which Joel Silver is producing, the trade paper reported. He also was attached to direct.
Last week, Warner bought a Wonder Woman script from newcomers Matthew Jennison and Brent Strickland that the two wrote on spec as a writing sample to win other assignments. Even though the studio said it was taking the spec off the market to protect itself against the possibility that any similarities between the scripts could be fodder for future legal action, it clearly liked certain elements in the new screenplay.
Whedon's take on the Amazonian princess set the tale in the present. In contrast, Jennison and Strickland's script is set during World War II, the era when the character was created. Sources told the trade paper that Silver and the studio are not interested in making a period picture.
Whedon is working on Goners, a thriller he is attached to direct for Universal Pictures, and will be writing Runaways, a comic series about super-powered teens, for Marvel Comics. He is also overseeing a new storyline of Buffy for Dark Horse Comics.
http://whedonesque.com/comments/12385#more

Silver: Woman Not Wonderful
Producer Joel Silver showed up at San Francisco's WonderCon over the weekend expecting to tout his upcoming supernatural film The Reaping, but it took less than six minutes for a fan to implore him to reconsider the departure of Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon as writer and director of Silver's proposed Wonder Woman movie.
Later, Silver told SCI FI Wire that the Wonder Woman project had a long way to go. "We're not there yet," Silver said in an interview. "I mean, look, ... for a while these Marvel Comics [movies] have been kicking the DC Comics [movies'] ass. You know? I mean all these characters that just keep coming out. And, look, they revived Batman. They're making a new Batman now. It should be great. They're making a new Superman, and they're going to do Justice League, all the characters, which I think is a cool idea. And we're going to get Wonder Woman to work."
Whedon was famously hired to draft a new look at the Amazonian superhero, but quit the project a month ago after failing to win over Silver and Warner Brothers with his take on the franchise. Warner, meanwhile, bought a Wonder Woman spec script from newcomers Matthew Jennison and Brent Strickland, which set the story during World War II, the original period of the comics series.
Silver denied that the spec script would be the basis for the movie. "I don't think so," he said, adding that he never wanted to make a period film. "We didn't buy it for that. There were some good ideas in it, but it was out there, and we wanted to just kind of not have it floating around. We wanted just to acquire it and keep it."
As for how the project will move forward without Whedon? "We'll make it work," Silver said. "You know, it's going to [work]. ... We just couldn't figure it out, but we'll get there." But for now, Silver said he's not actively looking for a new writer or director. "No, not yet. We're just ... talking about it, and we'll get back to it soon."

If anyone's curious, there is a direct-to-DVD animated movie about the Amazon Princess out right now.:ph43r: