Extra, Extra!: Meet Wonder Woman's Director

In which I report on the latest in entertainment news.

Warner Brothers' peregrination for a Wonder Woman director has finally come to an end.  At first viciously criticized for not even so much as considering a woman to helm their premiere superheroine's solo film, they eventually focused their efforts on three extremely capable females: Kathryn Bigelow, Mimi Leder and Michelle MacLaren.

For my money, Kathryn Bigelow - the Academy award-winning director of The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty - would have been an ideal choice.  She's an incredibly talented and high-profile director who would have given a project that smacks of playing catch-up to Marvel's well-established and highly profitable cinematic universe an air of artistic legitimacy.  Her most recent and most celebrated projects have all been tense, action-packed dramas that exude the same sense of somber, grounded realism that Warner Brothers, for better or for worse, seems Hell-bent on dousing the films in their cinematic universe with (call it "The Dark Knight aesthetic").  She would have come to the project with a uniquely androgynous perspective: feminine, yes, but grounded in traditionally masculine interests.  And given that Wonder Woman is born into a warrior nation, who better to depict this than a woman who has made a career out of depicting martial narratives.

Mimi Leder would not have been an especially good, nor an especially inspired choice.  She directed her way through the 80s one TV show episode at a time, finally breaking into film in the 90s and early 2000s, only to slip back exclusively into television in 2001.  While her TV resume is certainly extensive, none of it seems to be in line with what would be expected out of a Wonder Woman film: adult comedies and situational dramas.  Her actual filmography has been a mixed bag that likewise inspires little confidence: overly saccharine melodramas like Pay It Forward paired with lesser action films like Deep Impact.  While she certainly would not have been an abominably bad choice, she hardly has the talent, experience nor profile that Bigelow would bring to the project.

Michelle MacLaren on the set of Breaking Bad.

The third candidate, and the one who will actually be taking on the project, is Michelle MacLaren (pictured above).  Like Leder, MacLaren has made a career through directing and producing TV series episodes and made-for-TV movies.  But it is here where the comparison between them ends.  Whereas Leder was known for working on shows such as Shameless and ER, MacLaren is best known for her work on Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones: tense, exciting, character-driven dramas that have garnered her significant critical praise - associating her more with Bigelow both stylistically and in terms of narrative content.  And, unlike Bigelow, McLaren's projects have often incorporated aspects of unreality more in line with the Wonder Woman franchise: monsters, magic and melee-driven action.

While admittedly not my first choice, her status as what is essentially the poor man's Kathryn Bigellow means that she is perfectly suited for the task that she is being entrusted with.  And while Wonder Woman is a stretch from the journalistic realism of Bigelow's preferred narrative, it is well within MacLaren's proven talents.

Besides, it would be a good change of pace to get a few more gal's in the directors chairs of major films.  Maybe in a few years Kathryn Bigelow and Sofia Coppola won't have to share the same gender-set spotlight as Catherine Hardwicke for lack of superior alternatives.

Do you think that Warner Brothers made the right call with their new director?  What are you hoping for (or fearing to see) in the upcoming Wonder Woman movie?  Share your thoughts and comments below.

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