Wonder Woman (2017 film)



Wonder Woman is a 2017 American superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name, created by William Moulton Marston, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is the fourth installment in the DC Extended Universe. The film is directed by Patty Jenkins, with a screenplay by Allan Heinberg, from a story by Heinberg, Zack Snyder and Jason Fuchs.

It stars Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, Danny Huston, David Thewlis, Connie Nielsen and Elena Anaya. In Wonder Woman, after American pilot Steve Trevor crashes on the island of Themyscira and tells Diana Prince about World War I, Diana leaves her home to try to stop the war and becomes Wonder Woman.

Wonder Woman is the first summer tent pole superhero film directed by a woman, and Jenkins is the first woman to direct a superhero film with a female protagonist. Wonder Woman premiered in Shanghai on May 15, 2017, and is scheduled to be released in the United States on June 2, 2017, in 2D, 3D, and IMAX 3D. It received positive reviews from critics, with many calling it the best installment of the DCEU.

Synopsis
In the early 20th century, the Amazon princess Diana, who is living on the island of Themyscira, meets American military pilot Steve Trevor when he washes ashore. After learning from him about the ongoing events of World War I, she leaves her home for London to bring an early end to the war.

Cast

 * Gal Gadot as Diana Prince / Wonder Woman: The immortal, 5000 year old Amazon princess, daughter of Hippolyta and Zeus, and the half-sister of Ares. Gadot described her character as having "many strengths and powers, but at the end of the day she's a woman with a lot of emotional intelligence". As to how her character will be different from her appearance in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Gadot said "We go back 100 years to when she's more naive", further explaining, "She's this young idealist. She's pure. Very different to the experienced, super-confident, grown-up woman you've seen". Gadot underwent a diet and training regimen, practiced different martial arts and gained 17 pounds of muscle for the role. Élodie Yung and Olga Kurylenko had also auditioned for the role. Gadot was previously offered a role in Man of Steel which she declined because she was pregnant at that time; this allowed her to be cast later as Wonder Woman in the film's follow-up. Gadot signed a three-picture deal and debuted in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Emily Carey portrays the young Diana.
 * Chris Pine as Steve Trevor: A captain from the United States Army Air Service who is the love interest of Diana Prince. Pine described his character as a "rogue-ish, cynical realist who's seen the awful brutish nature of modern civilization" and added he is a "worldly guy, a charming guy". Pine signed a multi-picture deal.
 * Robin Wright as General Antiope: The sister of Hippolyta and Diana's aunt.
 * Danny Huston as General Erich Ludendorff: An ambitious and iron fisted general of the German Army during World War I.
 * David Thewlis as Ares: The treacherous son of Zeus and half-brother of Diana, based on the Greek mythological god of War who masquerades as Sir Patrick Morgan, a speaker for peace on the Imperial War Cabinet as part of his deceptive master plan of conquest and destruction.
 * Connie Nielsen as Queen Hippolyta: The Amazon queen of Themyscira and Diana's mother. Nicole Kidman was in negotiations for the role but was forced to drop due to scheduling conflicts with Big Little Lies. Previously, Nielsen had been considered for the role of Superman's mother, Lara Lor-Van, in Man of Steel.
 * Elena Anaya as Doctor Maru / Doctor Poison: A mad scientist who is associated with General Ludendorff and specializes in chemistry such as poisons.
 * Lucy Davis as Etta Candy: Steve Trevor's comical, loyal, and friendly secretary who befriends Diana.
 * Saïd Taghmaoui as Sameer: A secret agent who is a master of disguise, an ally of Steve Trevor.
 * Ewen Bremner as Charlie: A heavy-drinking Scottish sharpshooter, who's already had a tour of duty and has post-traumatic stress disorder, an ally of Steve Trevor.
 * Eugene Brave Rock portrays Chief, an opportunist who trades with both sides of the war and knows how to get people across the front lines,

In addition, Lisa Loven Kongsli portrays Menalippe, Antiope's lieutenant. Mayling Ng, Florence Kasumba, Madeleine Vall, and boxer Ann Wolfe play the Amazons Orana, Senator Acantha, Egeria, and Artemis, respectively. Dutch model Doutzen Kroes will portray the Amazon Venelia. Samantha Jo, who played Car-Vex in Man of Steel, was cast as Euboea.

Background
Development for a theatrical-release Wonder Woman film began in 1996, with Ivan Reitman attached as producer and possible director. Three years later, the project was attached to Jon Cohen, who was adapting Wonder Woman for producer Joel Silver, with the hope that Sandra Bullock would star. Silver approached Todd Alcott two years later to write the screenplay, with Silver Pictures backing the project. Early gossip linked actresses such as Angelina Jolie, Beyoncé Knowles, Bullock, Rachel Bilson, Nadia Bjorlin, Megan Fox, Eliza Dushku and Catherine Zeta-Jones to the role of Wonder Woman. Leonard Goldberg, speaking in a May 2001 interview, named Bullock as a strong candidate for the project. Bullock claimed that she was approached for the role, while wrestler Chyna expressed interest. Turning down the part in the past, Xena 's Lucy Lawless indicated that she would have been more interested if Wonder Woman was portrayed as a "flawed hero." The screenplay then went through various drafts written by Alcott, Cohen, Becky Johnston, and Philip Levens and by August 2003, Levens was replaced by screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis.

In March 2005, Warner Bros. and Silver Pictures announced that Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) would write and direct the film adaptation of Wonder Woman, with a reported salary was of $2 to $3 million. Since Whedon was directing Serenity at the time, and required time to research Wonder Woman's background, he did not begin the screenplay until late 2005. While Whedon stated in May 2005 that he would not cast Wonder Woman until he finished the script, Charisma Carpenter, Morena Baccarin, and Priyanka Chopra were in talks to portray Wonder Woman in the film adaptation by Whedon. After nearly two years, however, Whedon had not written a finished draft, and in 2007 left the project.

A day before Whedon's departure from Wonder Woman, Warner Bros. and Silver Pictures purchased a spec script written by Matthew Jennison and Brent Strickland. Set during World War II, the script impressed executives at Silver Pictures. However, Silver stated that he purchased the script because he did not want the rights reverting; while admitting the script had good ideas, Silver did not want the Wonder Woman film to be a period piece. By April 2008, Silver hired Jennison and Strickland to write a new script set in contemporary times that would not depict Wonder Woman's origin, but explore Paradise Island's history.

In 2010, Warner Bros. stated that a film was in development, along with films based on DC Comics superheroes the Flash and Aquaman. Both Wonder Woman and Aquaman were still under consideration for solo film subjects as of June 2013. DC Chief Diane Nelson said Wonder Woman "has been, since I started, one of the top three priorities for DC and for Warner Bros. We are still trying right now, but she's tricky." On October 5, 2013, WB chairman Kevin Tsujihara said he wanted to get Wonder Woman in a film or on TV. Shortly afterward, Paul Feig said he had pitched the studio an idea for Wonder Woman as an action-comedy film. The studio then began to search for female directors to direct the film. While Michelle MacLaren was the studio's initial choice to direct the film (and while she initially indicated interest), she eventually left the project due to creative differences.

Development
In 2015, Patty Jenkins accepted an offer to direct yet another version of Wonder Woman based on a screenplay by Allan Heinberg and a story co-written by Heinberg, Zack Snyder, and Jason Fuchs. Their story places Wonder Woman in the 1910s and World War I, which differs from her comic book origins as a supporter of the Allies during World War II. It also follows DC Comics' origin changes in The New 52 reboot, where Diana is the daughter of Zeus, rather than a figure created out of clay by the gods. The 2017 film Wonder Woman was conceived as a prequel to the first live-action, theatrical appearance of Wonder Woman in the 2016 film, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Casting
Gal Gadot won the title role (over Élodie Yung and Olga Kurylenko) for the role of Wonder Woman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.   Chris Pine was cast as Steve Trevor, and Sean Bean and Eva Green were considered for the villains Ares and Circe, respectively. In November 2015, Saïd Taghmaoui was cast in an unspecified role. While Nicole Kidman was in talks for a role, she eventually withdrew from the project.

Filming
Production began on November 21st, 2015, under the working title Nightingale. Among the film sets are Kings Cross Station and Trafalgar Square in London with several attractions in Southern Italy such as the Sassi di Matera, Castel del Monte, Palinuro and Camerota. Matthew Jensen was the director of photography, filming in the United Kingdom, France and Italy. Production in London ended on March 13, 2016. On March 20, 2016, filming was underway in Italy. In late April filming took place at The Louvre, where a Wayne Enterprises truck was spotted alongside Gadot. Production ended on May 9, 2016. Patty Jenkins and director of photography Matt Jensen revealed that the film's look was inspired by painter John Singer Sargent. Reshoots took place in November 2016 while Gadot was five months pregnant. A green cloth was placed over her stomach to edit out her pregnancy during post-production.

Post-production
Bill Westenhofer is the visual effects supervisor and Martin Walsh is the editor.

Music
On November 3, 2016, Rupert Gregson-Williams was hired to write and compose the film's music. He is joined by Tom Howe, Paul Mounsey, and Andrew Kawczynski who provide additional music. The soundtrack is released the same day as the movie on CD, digital, and vinyl.

Australian singer Sia sings a song for the film, titled "To Be Human" featuring English musician Labrinth. Written by Florence Welch and Rick Nowels, the track will also feature on the soundtrack.

Release
Wonder Woman held its world premiere in Shanghai on May 15, 2017. The film's London premiere, which was scheduled to take place on May 31, 2017 at the Odeon Leicester Square, was cancelled due to the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing. The film is scheduled to be released in the United States in Los Angeles May 25 and Mexico City for the Latin America premiere on May 27 and in most of the world on June 2, 2017, after originally being scheduled for a June 23, 2017 release. It will also be released in IMAX. Belgium, Singapore and South Korea will receive the film first, with Wonder Woman opening in those countries on May 31, 2017. On April 17, it was announced that Wonder Woman would be released in China on June 2, day-and-date with its North American release.

Marketing
In May 2017, NASCAR driver Danica Patrick drove her No. 10 car with a Wonder Woman paint scheme at the Go Bowling 400 in Kansas and at the Monster Energy Open in Charlotte.

The success of the superhero television series Supergirl informed the marketing and promotion strategy used for Wonder Woman. According to Time Warner chief marketing officer Kristen O'Hara, they wanted to approach the Wonder Woman marketing campaign in a light manner similar to how they did with Supergirl on television. O'Hara elaborated that the modest campaign route they took for Supergirl aided in establishing a large central female fanbase well in advance of the series, which reportedly generated 5 million female superhero fans in one week. They were then able to model over time to grow that audience leading up to 15 months later the release of Wonder Woman. Though neither the film or the series are just aimed at females, the latter's campaign gave them their first opportunity to begin collecting data about female superhero fans.

The costs for television advertisements related to Wonder Woman are significantly higher in comparison to that of previous DCEU film Suicide Squad. Warner Bros. has spent over $3 million on advertisements for Wonder Woman, whereas they had spent a total of $2,645,643 on advertisements for Suicide Squad (film). A promo for the movie was released during the May 2017 season finale of Supergirl featuring a remix of the song These Boots Are Made for Walkin' and Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) wearing Wonder Woman's boots and bracelets. The promo included an appearance by Lynda Carter, star of the 1970's Wonder Woman, who plays the American president on Supergirl.

Ticket selling site Fandango reported that Wonder Woman rounded the final leg of its marketing campaign as the most anticipated blockbuster of summer 2017, according to a poll conducted by 10,000 voters, the biggest survey in company history. Separately, Fandango also found that 92% of people surveyed said that they are looking forward to see a film that features a standalone female superhero, and 87% wished Hollywood would make more female-led superhero films.

The costs for television advertisements for Wonder Woman are significantly higher in comparison to that of previous DCEU film, Suicide Squad. Warner Bros. has spent over $3 million on advertisements for Wonder Woman, whereas they had spent $2.6 million on advertisements for Suicide Squad.

Controversy
The Twitter group, #boycottwonderwoman labeled a "woman only" premiere of the film as sexist. According to CNN, male moviegoers termed this step, supported by producers of the film as misandry and were unhappy with this decision. "No Guys Allowed" and "Women-only" screenings (including staff) were held at Alamo Drafthouse cinema in Austin Texas. Forbes published an article by Susannah Breslin stating that the idea of women-only screening is to give women a chance to "gaze up at the big screen and think, finally: That's me." Alamo Drafthouse added more showtimes after complaints over the all-female screening.

Box office
In May 2017, early tracking had Wonder Woman grossing $65–75 million to as high as $105 million in its opening weekend. The lower-end projections came from publications like The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline Hollywood, while the higher-end estimation came from The Wrap. According to Forbes, the film needs to make at least $460 million worldwide to break even.

Critical response
Wonder Woman received positive reviews, with many critics calling it the best DCEU film and praising Gadot's performance. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 96% based on 51 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Thrilling, earnest, and buoyed by Gal Gadot's charismatic performance, Wonder Woman succeeds in spectacular fashion." On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 79 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Michael Phillips of The Chicago Tribune compared the film favorably to Captain America: The First Avenger: "Like the first Captain America movie over in the Marvel Comics universe, DC's Wonder Woman offers the pleasures of period re-creation for a popular audience. Jenkins and her design team make 1918-era London; war-torn Belgium; the Ottoman Empire; and other locales look freshly realized, with a strong point of view. There are scenes here of dispossessed war refugees, witnessed by an astonished and heartbroken Diana, that carry unusual gravity for a comic book adaptation." Phillips awarded the film three-and-a-half stars out of four. Katie Erbland of IndieWire awarded the film an A-, commending the film's thematic depth: "Wonder Woman is a war movie. Patty Jenkins' first—and we hope not last—entry into the DC Expanded Universe is primarily set during World War I, but while the feature doesn't balk at war-time violence, it's the internal battles of its compelling heroine that are most vital." Alonso Duralde of The Wrap also praised the film's wartime themes: "Diana's scenes of action are thrilling precisely because they're meant to stop war, not to foment it; the idea of a demi-god using love to fight war might sound goofy in the abstract, but Jenkins makes the concept work."

Many critics directed much of their praise towards Gadot's portrayal of Wonder Woman. Sheri Linden of The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "Having demonstrated her action chops in the Fast & Furious franchise, Gadot brings a graceful athleticism to the role of a superhuman determined to take down Ares himself. At the same time, she lends a sweetly comic innocence to Diana’s amazed encounters with the civilized world." Andrew Barker of Variety praised the film's more lighthearted tone: "Never prone to stewing in solitude, and taking more notes from Richard Donner than from Christopher Nolan, Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman provides a welcome respite from DC's house style of grim darkness—boisterous, earnest, sometimes sloppy, yet consistently entertaining—with star Gal Gadot proving an inspired choice for this avatar of truth, justice and the Amazonian way." In his A- review, Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly lauded Gadot's performance as well: "Gadot, an Israeli actress with piercing dark eyes, is probably best known for playing Gisele in several of the Fast & Furious movies. But there was nothing in those installments that hinted at the undeniable star power she gives off as Wonder Woman. Granted, the Fast & Furious movies aren't exactly acting showcases, but still.... Her Diana is both awesomely fierce and surprisingly funny, especially when she arrives in war-torn London with Trevor and gets her first taste of 20th-century modernity. Whether she's reacting to the unfamiliar sight of automobiles or constricting early 20th-century women's fashions, she takes it all in like a fish-out-of-water naïf."

Some critics were more mixed. Steve Rose of The Guardian awarded the film two stars out of five, writing: "Like many people out there, I had no shortage of excitement and goodwill towards this female-led superhero project, but in the event it’s plagued by the same problems that dragged down previous visits to the DC movie world: over-earnestness, bludgeoning special effects, and a messy, often wildly implausible plot. What promised to be a glass-ceiling-smashing blockbuster actually looks more like a future camp classic." Rodrigo Perez of The Playlist awarded the film a C+, writing: "These characters rarely doubt themselves and oftentimes that's pretty dull. And the idea of a steadfast, unwavering hero certainly applies to Wonder Woman. Sure, the foundations of these stories are largely built as black and white sagas, but that doesn't pardon the movie's lack of complexity or excuse its shallowness. Yet it's the DCEU's best film, but as we know, that's not saying a lot."

Sequel
In April 2017, director Patty Jenkins talked about the possibility of a sequel, stating "I'm excited for her to come to America and become the Wonder Woman we are all familiar with from having grown up around her as an American superhero. I'd like to bring her a little farther along into the future and have a fun, exciting storyline that is its own thing. Wonder Woman 1 is so much about her becoming the person she is. I can't wait to spring forward with who she is and have another great standalone superhero film."