Now that NBC has officially killed the buzz surrounding David E. Kelley‘s Wonder Woman television show by passing on its already-filmed pilot, the blogosphere can finally get back to arguing about who would do the comics justice in movie form. Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn (Bronson, Valhalla Rising), who has been talking about rebooting Wonder Woman for at least a year now, already has an actress in mind – Christina Hendricks. [Vulture]
At the U.S. premiere of his neo-noir Drive (starring Ryan Gosling and Hendricks) at the Los Angeles Film Festival Friday, Refn referenced his hypothetical Wonder Woman project, then turned to his Drive star Hendricks and said, “If I ever get to do it, she’s going to be it.”
Hendricks would likely be willing to take on the iconic role. In an interview with Rachael Ray last year, the Mad Men star said, “I’ve been wanting to wear [the Wonder Woman] outfit my whole life … I had Underoos — I had Wonder Woman Underoos.”
Refn, whose films usually deal with over-the-top violent masculinity, would certainly have an interesting take on the superheroine. In an interview with Movieline last year, the director talked about handling a strong female lead:
“The whole idea of a woman who is basically more powerful than any man — and who will always be that, and comes from a society of women who are more powerful than men — is an interesting theme that I think can be very contemporary.”
Refn also said that, since the comics don’t offer any great supervillains to counter Wonder Woman, he’d have to create his own:
“Where Wonder Woman on one hand is a great female character who can be included in many great fight scenes, she doesn’t have great villains against her. OK, so you create some. She doesn’t have a Joker or those classic Batman kinds of guys. The trick with Wonder Woman is to find that antagonist who worked so well in the Batman concept — his villains are equally if not more exciting than Batman himself. Here, it’s basically coming up with who would be a great counterpart to Wonder Woman. Is it her mother who’s the real enemy? Something that’s biblical in a sense.”
For now, a Wonder Woman project featuring Hendricks is nothing more than something to optimistically look forward to. Refn, meanwhile, is busy with Drive, which is set to open in the U.S. on Sept. 16. He then will continue his bromance with Ryan Gosling in a second and third film, after taking on the neo-western Only God Forgives, shooting this summer in Thailand.
Who would be in your dream cast for a Wonder Woman movie? Is Refn the right guy to do it?