How would YOU do a Wonder Woman movie?

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Damselbinder

While I gather that the first Gal Gadot film was relatively well received, it seems that the second one has - at best - been pretty divisive. For that reason, I thought it might be fun to ask: if YOU were given the reins of the next Wonder Woman film, how would you do it? What would you do to tell the best possible Wonder Woman story on the silver screen? Either as its entirely own thing; or as the third movie in the current series; or even as a replacement-sequel ignoring '84 specifically.
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The Amazon origin story was absolutely pathetic in the first one. Made no sense at all when I saw it first time around and was even more incomprehensible when I saw it a few weeks ago. If it were purely up to me I would do an origin story set in ancient Greece. Kind of reminiscent of "Jason and the Argonauts " and "Clash of the Titans". Akin to the Amazos story many of us here have contributed to.

If its a success then you have somewhere to go with subsequent films in bringing them up to the present day or more modern age anyway.

That was, to a degree, the concept behind setting the first in World War One but it was so badly done for my money. Incoherent plotting leading to incomprehensible and improbable scenarios (What the hell was the point in the marksman character? Once he's shown he's lost his nerve whty the hell have him anywhere near that team and the fighting if you aren't going to give him the chance of redemption ( oh but it's OK because he can dance for them ffs)).

BUT if you assume modern audiences won't stomach a pure ancient Greece set flick, then
I personally would have the first half of the film as an origin story on how she got her powers (as gifts from the gods,) which would be roughly an hour and involve her standing up to the male gods (akin to the Ares Showdown in the first film) then around half an hour of her using her powers in the modern day - solving robberies, hijacking etc, and then perhaps 45 mins of her battling a modern supervillain who may have been behind the robberies, out for world domination, ( as all good supervillains should be) perhaps using an artifact that was intended for her in the origin story but for whatever reason she either didn't attain it or rejected accepting it.
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Good question to ask, and I have a few thoughts I will try to share later on. But as to the two WW movies, I think the problem with the first movie is a lack of characterization. Perhaps I'm jaded because of the way Marvel tied their characters to an overall thread or due to watching series instead of movies, but a two-hour film is less impactful to me nowadays. The first movie seemed to try to cover too much in too little time. Villains were not adequately fleshed out, and the final fight did not seem to have adequate build-up. Furthermore, choosing a Hogwart's teacher to play the role of Ares seemed poor casting to me.
As for the second movie, the whole premise of the "wish stone" or whatever it's meant to be seemed silly. Perhaps the goal of the movie was to emphasize the need to be happy in what we have and not focus on what we don't, but that message cannot substitute for a good plot and a quality villain. Speaking of villains, Cheetah had potential. Kristin Wiig was great, but the final fight scene was almost boring--when the movements are completely unrealistic, I do not know when I should feel any sense of peril. With the characters flying through the air, using a lasso to ride lightening, being able to bounce off of anything and not lose balance--it's hard to have a sense of either character being in any real danger. In contrast, the fight between Batman and Bane was easy to follow and one could see when Batman was in real trouble.

The primary challenge for any superhero movie is creating a sense of risk and danger for a character who cannot be killed off (with some notable exceptions). No one could believe Wonder Woman would be severely hurt, let alone killed. So the outcome was already determined; it was just a matter of what steps would lead to that outcome. Without the suspense connected to the superhero's fate, the story becomes quite limited. The only recourse is to then create a villain that fascinates the audience. Neither Wonder Woman movie featured such a villain. Cheetah came closest, but even so her change from a sweet bumbling innocent to a vicious power-hungry villain was too quick and did not leave me concerned as to whether or not she would regain her humanity or stay a villain. And the storyline involving Maxwell Lord was boring. The whole premise was odd and lacking.

Anyhow, those are just my initial thoughts. I'll work on an idea for a WW movie plot as a counter to my complaints. Initially, I would go with something similar to Tallyho's idea of using Greek mythology. There are already built in storylines and a fair knowledge base for the audience (as I believe Greek mythology is still taught in many schools). With so many interesting characters in the mythology, there are opportunities to create a number of various storylines. Perhaps something along the lines of the last two Harry Potter movies might be used: blend the earth world with the world of the Greek gods in the same way the witches and wizards in the HP series lived in secret within London.
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I would have thought it interesting that Diana thought Arch Duke Ferdinand was Aries and she killed him and that trigger WW1 and that explains why she stayed in hiding.
Bert

Damselbinder wrote:
3 years ago
While I gather that the first Gal Gadot film was relatively well received
You...gather? Relatively well received? Was it it the $820 million gross? The number 7 top grossing movie of the year? The 93% Tomatometer rating? Please, fill us in on what led you to this astonishing realization.
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Bert wrote:
3 years ago
Damselbinder wrote:
3 years ago
While I gather that the first Gal Gadot film was relatively well received
You...gather? Relatively well received? Was it it the $820 million gross? The number 7 top grossing movie of the year? The 93% Tomatometer rating? Please, fill us in on what led you to this astonishing realization.
I'll be the fool and try to interpret the comment. My guess is the disparity between the box office numbers and the mediocrity of the film. For context, Avatar is one of the top grossing films of all-time and it was little more than Pocahontas in Space with a trite plot and mediocre acting. Wonder Woman was hardly a transcendent movie, if we're being honest about it. Metacritic is a better measurement than Rotten Tomatoes anyhow (for what it's worth, here's the reason: https://qz.com/quartzy/1518240/rotten-t ... c-instead/
Metacritic has the movie at a 6.3 out of 10 for users and 76 for critics (which may have received a slight boost because it's a superhero movie starring a female and promotes woman power--which is a good message but does not improve the storyline itself, which I felt was lacking bit).
As a side note, I do not find BTS to be some sort of transcendent musical group, yet if the argument is sales = excellence, then they are one of the greatest musical groups of all-time. Yet I think Leonard Cohen is a better musician despite grossing less than BTS.
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Bert

My comment was about DB's choice of words. It wasn't a review of the movie (which I enjoyed much of), it was a criticism of the haughty "I gather", like it isn't common knowledge the movie was a massive hit with fans and critics.

Look, we're here because we like superheroines. In 2017 we got a big budget superheroine movie with top notch effects (well, some of them), a beautiful woman who was praised for her portrayal, a fairly sexy costume and some cool action. I think it's a little precious for us to be bashing the flick for not being perfect. How many of these do we get?
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I have to admit, I have never seen the Joss Whedon Justice League movie (it's not a Zack Snyder thing, I just haven't seen it), so I am not totally clear on where the Amazons stand at the moment in the DCEU. Anyway, I think it would be cool if the villain/villains in Wonder Woman 3 were a rogue group of Amazons who want to destroy mankind rather than save it. Then, you could do the Dark Knight Rises/Thor Ragnarok thing and have Diana get her ass kicked and thrown into an unfamiliar environment. In this case, the villain Amazons could bind Diana and cast her into Tartarus. There, she would have to team up with old enemies (maybe Ares) to make it back to Earth. In terms of themes, she would have to reckon with what it truly means to be an Amazon, or a hero, and so forth. You could also try to work it so some men (enemies of the Amazons from the past, or men in the present day) help Diana stop the rogue Amazons and save the world. Then, you could do the big speech thing and Diana could talk about how not all men are evil. I don't know, these are really half-baked ideas, but I think something along those lines would be interesting.

By the time you get to the third movie, you have to have the hero meet their match, which weirdly has not happened with Diana in a Wonder Woman movie yet. It certainly wasn't Cheetah. It was Ares, maybe? But not really. So, I think a renegade Amazon who is just as strong and fast as Diana would be a good villain.
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Damselbinder wrote:
3 years ago
While I gather that the first Gal Gadot film was relatively well received, it seems that the second one has - at best - been pretty divisive. For that reason, I thought it might be fun to ask: if YOU were given the reins of the next Wonder Woman film, how would you do it? What would you do to tell the best possible Wonder Woman story on the silver screen? Either as its entirely own thing; or as the third movie in the current series; or even as a replacement-sequel ignoring '84 specifically.
If I was going to do a Wonder Woman story, i would remember that movies especially this type are escapist faire.

So I would follow the blueprint of one like the Batman Movie with Nicholson and Keaton.

If I was going to use the character of Cheetah, I would use the original one: Priclla Rich.
Damselbinder

Bert wrote:
3 years ago
Damselbinder wrote:
3 years ago
While I gather that the first Gal Gadot film was relatively well received
You...gather? Relatively well received? Was it it the $820 million gross? The number 7 top grossing movie of the year? The 93% Tomatometer rating? Please, fill us in on what led you to this astonishing realization.
For fuck's sake Bert, was this really necessary? All I meant was that it was that people liked it and it did well but it didn't get across the board rave reviews. We have seen in this very thread that not everyone liked it completely. I said 'I gather' because I don't consider myself to have my finger absolutely on the pulse and my view of the film's general reception might not be all that accurate. I can't even make a disclaimer admitting the possibility of my ignorance without you scoffing at my arrogance.
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If I were given the reins of the next WW movie, I'd have to do a lot of research cause I plain don't know enough about WW!

But just off the top of my head, I would make it a third installment of Gal Gadot Wonder Woman movies, and I'd introduce Supergirl in it. And they'd have to fight for some reason TBD.

And since no one knows what's gonna happen to theaters in the future, I think I'd rather it be a DC TV series on HBO Max (or wherever DC will be streaming in 2023 or after).

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If I were doing a Wonder Woman movie, I'd build towards the next Justice League movie, which should be the Justice League versus the Legion of Doom.

1) Set it in the present day, after the first Justice League movie. Have Wonder Woman be working as the public ambassador of the Justice League, introduce the Hall of Justice.

2) Have Wonder Woman alone, fighting a team of supervillains in the Hall of Justice, Die Hard style? At the end, she thwarts their evil scheme, but the Hall of Justice is in ruins, and the Legion of Doom has just begun to reveal their true power.

3) Introduce the members of the Legion of Doom who are not already arch-enemies of the other heroes. Killer Frost, definitely. Clayface would be a good get, as well as Solomon Grundy.

4) Make the villains not only a threat to her, but straight up more powerful as a team. Definitely have her first on-screen KO. She only wins by out-maneuvering them, and even then it's an uphill battle. And then at the end of the movie, the LOD reveals its real heavy hitters like Lex Luthor , Sinestro, and Cheetah, as well as the Hall of Doom. The end of the movie has the rest of the Justice League arriving to stand by her side against this threat.
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I think I would start with Diana waking from a defeat and realizing that her bracelets, tiara, lasso etc have been stolen, her memory somewhat hazy about what happened. Slowly her memories would come back and she would begin to track down those that had defeated her and getting her stuff back. The manner of her comeback would come from inspirational flashbacks which would allow the audience to see her ancient greek heritage without it being too much for an audience who would prefer a modern setting.

The opponents she would face needed Diana's items to perhaps achieve their own objectives and so as Diana finally gets everything back she finally meets the end-of-level-boss who had been directing the big picture crime. Now, with everything in her possession Diana, via some more inspirational flashback type stuff overcomes the united villains and the boss and preventing their plans, and of course reversing the original defeat that led into the opening scene.
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If I held the power:

No more Justice League - it doesn't work in live action movies. Maybe it's okay in cartoon/comics.
Wonder Woman reboot.
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Hmmm. I really loved the steampunk aesthetic of the first film, so I would set it in the 1920s. Gal Godot looked amazing, so keep her and the costuming. I would bring back her weakness of being made mortal by bondage. Nazis, lots of female Nazis, Fausta would be a fun main villain. Have Jim Weathers direct...
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One problem with bringing Cheetah back: 1984 was 37 years ago. Let's say Cheetah was 33 in WW84 (Kristen Wiig is 48, believe it or not). That would make her 70 years old in 2021!
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sneakly wrote:
3 years ago
Hmmm. I really loved the steampunk aesthetic of the first film, so I would set it in the 1920s. Gal Godot looked amazing, so keep her and the costuming. I would bring back her weakness of being made mortal by bondage. Nazis, lots of female Nazis, Fausta would be a fun main villain. Have Jim Weathers direct...
There's a ton of cool skulduggery going on in the 20's and 30's. The Luftwaffe running its own secret airbase in Soviet Russia, for instance.
Bert

Damselbinder wrote:
3 years ago
Bert wrote:
3 years ago
Damselbinder wrote:
3 years ago
While I gather that the first Gal Gadot film was relatively well received
You...gather? Relatively well received? Was it it the $820 million gross? The number 7 top grossing movie of the year? The 93% Tomatometer rating? Please, fill us in on what led you to this astonishing realization.
For fuck's sake Bert, was this really necessary? All I meant was that it was that people liked it and it did well but it didn't get across the board rave reviews. We have seen in this very thread that not everyone liked it completely. I said 'I gather' because I don't consider myself to have my finger absolutely on the pulse and my view of the film's general reception might not be all that accurate. I can't even make a disclaimer admitting the possibility of my ignorance without you scoffing at my arrogance.
Please. You're a writer. You're skilled at getting your meaning across with words. A person would have to have been living in a cave in 2017 not to know Wonder Woman was a huge hit. The film was credited with saving the DC Universe. It made Gadot a huge star. You know these things. No, what your first sentence means is you think the film was undeserving of the massive success it enjoyed. You expressed that disapproval by employing words like "gather" and "relatively" to describe a runaway success story.

If you'd said "Hey, in my opinion the first WW movie didn't deserve the accolades it received..." then fine. That's an honest expression of your opinion. Instead, you used equivocation, implying you were above the fray while still turning your nose up at the film. And hey, if this was a one-off - no harm no foul. But you've established a pattern of this kind of stuff, which is why my Spidey-sense goes off when I see it.

Anyway, now I feel like an ass for making all this stink about what is essentially a minor issue of tone. I'm sorry for the distraction.
Damselbinder

Bert wrote:
3 years ago
Damselbinder wrote:
3 years ago
Bert wrote:
3 years ago
Damselbinder wrote:
3 years ago
While I gather that the first Gal Gadot film was relatively well received
You...gather? Relatively well received? Was it it the $820 million gross? The number 7 top grossing movie of the year? The 93% Tomatometer rating? Please, fill us in on what led you to this astonishing realization.
For fuck's sake Bert, was this really necessary? All I meant was that it was that people liked it and it did well but it didn't get across the board rave reviews. We have seen in this very thread that not everyone liked it completely. I said 'I gather' because I don't consider myself to have my finger absolutely on the pulse and my view of the film's general reception might not be all that accurate. I can't even make a disclaimer admitting the possibility of my ignorance without you scoffing at my arrogance.
Please. You're a writer. You're skilled at getting your meaning across with words. A person would have to have been living in a cave in 2017 not to know Wonder Woman was a huge hit. The film was credited with saving the DC Universe. It made Gadot a huge star. You know these things. No, what your first sentence means is you think the film was undeserving of the massive success it enjoyed. You expressed that disapproval by employing words like "gather" and "relatively" to describe a runaway success story.

If you'd said "Hey, in my opinion the first WW movie didn't deserve the accolades it received..." then fine. That's an honest expression of your opinion. Instead, you used equivocation, implying you were above the fray while still turning your nose up at the film. And hey, if this was a one-off - no harm no foul. But you've established a pattern of this kind of stuff, which is why my Spidey-sense goes off when I see it.

Anyway, now I feel like an ass for making all this stink about what is essentially a minor issue of tone. I'm sorry for the distraction.
Well then shit. I guess I was living in a cave. It was indeed a minor issue of tone. It's been three years since that film came out, and whoopsie-doodle I didn't quite remember how well it was received. I was NOT turning my nose up at the film. You chose to read it in that way. You were wrong, and then you were haughty and aggressive about it. I was trying to start a fun conversation and you jumped down my throat.
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Perhaps a worthwhile exercise would be to look over Wonder Woman’s rogues gallery. What villains could be best used in an upcoming movie. I would be partial to a team-up between Dr. Psycho (which would allow an opportunity for some major twists—I thought initially he was in the 1984 movie and was manipulating WW with a fake Steve Trevor) and a physical threat such as the Silver Swan, Artemis or Cheetah (though back-to-back Cheetah storylines would be overdone for a third WW movie at this point).
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Well, I thought I might as well throw my own idea in.

There was a concept for a potential sequel to Gladiator - I'm not sure exactly where it came from? But whatever - which would have involved Maximus reincarnating as different warriors throughout history. I thought a fun take on Wonder Woman might be something similar. She starts as an amazon, and is then incarnated as different female warriors throughout history: as Tomyris, as Boudicca, as Tomoe Gozen (or as people like them, or one of their warriors), and so on. Maybe the emotional climax of the film is that she starts to become aware of her reincarnating, and wants it to stop, but maybe accepts her role as a kind of cosmic champion, before incarnating in the modern era as more recognizably Wonder Woman.

Or something.
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Right guys let's leave this mix up there - it's easy to ascribe ' tone' to the written word when there isn't necessarily one there - a lot depends on the reader's frame of mind as they read it. Let's just accept things at face value and move on please.
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I envision a Wonder Woman TV series done like Forever Knight. If people never saw that show it was a bout an 800 year old vampire who was a police detective. What they did was have him work a case and he'd flash back to a similar but more black and white example from his past that was analogous to the case.

So I see Diana in the present being some agent and she would flash back on incidences from the island or her times in man's world as she resolves these cases using her super powers.
Damselbinder

Mr. X wrote:
3 years ago
I envision a Wonder Woman TV series done like Forever Knight. If people never saw that show it was a bout an 800 year old vampire who was a police detective. What they did was have him work a case and he'd flash back to a similar but more black and white example from his past that was analogous to the case.

So I see Diana in the present being some agent and she would flash back on incidences from the island or her times in man's world as she resolves these cases using her super powers.
Oh, so a little like Angel or the Highlander tv series (of which I believe I am the only still-living enthusiast)? Yeah, that actually sounds like it would work really well.
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I would go the way they started the Batman and Wonder Woman TV series and Marvel movies by going back to the comic books and picking out decent stories for script starting points. That way you can eliminate some of the silliness in the movies where the plots don't make any sense. Then bring back villains that fought Wonder Woman using brains and science versus her powers. There were several good ones: the original Cheetah (Priscilla Rich), Baroness Paula von Gunther, Dr. Psycho, and Angleman.
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Damselbinder wrote:
3 years ago
Mr. X wrote:
3 years ago
I envision a Wonder Woman TV series done like Forever Knight. If people never saw that show it was a bout an 800 year old vampire who was a police detective. What they did was have him work a case and he'd flash back to a similar but more black and white example from his past that was analogous to the case.

So I see Diana in the present being some agent and she would flash back on incidences from the island or her times in man's world as she resolves these cases using her super powers.
Oh, so a little like Angel or the Highlander tv series (of which I believe I am the only still-living enthusiast)? Yeah, that actually sounds like it would work really well.
You are not the only enthusiast for either Angel or Highlander(although the last season of highlander was awful)
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Re Highlander: Can someone tell me how
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send a pm as I don't want to derail the thread
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LOTS of over the top lesbianism and the classic damsel in distress perils made famous by Batman TV series and the more series bondage scenarios from the old vintage kink days, afterall we do know WW was created to be in Peril and bdsm!
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Has anybody seen the movie "Professor Marston and his Wonder Woman."

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=pr ... ORM=VIREHT
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Damselbinder

DrDominator9 wrote:
3 years ago
Has anybody seen the movie "Professor Marston and his Wonder Woman."

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=pr ... ORM=VIREHT
Not to be gross, but that was one of the most delightfully erotic films I've seen in a very long time.
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Visitor wrote:
3 years ago
I would go the way they started the Batman and Wonder Woman TV series and Marvel movies by going back to the comic books and picking out decent stories for script starting points. That way you can eliminate some of the silliness in the movies where the plots don't make any sense. Then bring back villains that fought Wonder Woman using brains and science versus her powers. There were several good ones: the original Cheetah (Priscilla Rich), Baroness Paula von Gunther, Dr. Psycho, and Angleman.
Technically, there was a "Fausta Grables" in the first Wonder Woman movie. I believe she was the woman in the limo whose gown Diana appropriated to get into the Germans' party.

She's not mentioned by name, though, so it's more of an easter egg.

I'd add The Duke of Deception to your list, though if they wanted to remove the connection to Ares, they could simply cast him as a trickster god, of which there are many to choose from. WW84 opened the door to using other pantheons, after all. Though you would have to be careful to avoid comparisons to Marvel's Loki.
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DrDominator9 wrote:
3 years ago
Has anybody seen the movie "Professor Marston and his Wonder Woman."

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=pr ... ORM=VIREHT
thanks for posting doc, ive heard of the man but didnt realize a motion pic had been done about him. looks like you can watch the complete film online here https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=pr ... ORM=VDRVRV
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Yes, the Marston film was pretty great - very moody and erotic period piece.

For those who are mentioning Angel, Buffy and Highlander...think about how stupid it is that there *wasn't* a live-action Wonder Woman TV show in the 90s..it would have easily been even more popular than Xena, right around the final era where sexy "bad girl" heroines were not only allowed to exist, but they thrived in all media.

As for how I would write a Wonder Woman movie, it's simple - I would fully credit Greg Rucka, Liam Sharp and Nicola Scott for their work on the Wonder Woman Rebirth title and then adapt it to film, setting it in the present day and totally ignoring the WWI period of the previous film, which didn't make any sense to begin with. No World War II Nazis, no 60s or 80s retro.

Here's the plot:

Wonder Woman's secret identity is Diana Prince, who works at a museum in D.C. and is an expert on ancient artifacts, being thousands of years old herself. She is already known as Wonder Woman, having been introduced to the modern-day audiences by her appearances in BVS and Justice League. She is already a member of the Justice League. She is already the girlfriend of Colonel
Steve Trevor, who works in D.C. within the Pentagon (maybe sometime during the movie, they have a candlelight dinner where they profess their love for each other, and they reminisce about how she found him on the beach of Themyscira and followed him back to Man's World out of love for both him and a curiosity about humanity in general).

Enter Dr. Barbara Minerva, who gets a job at the museum in the collections department. She is socially awkward, but instead of being played by Kristin Wiig, who was terrible, she is cast with a much hotter actress (you name it, there are a dozen who could fit this role) so that her transformation is much more drastic and a hell of a lot sexier. Diana and Barbara meet each other in the museum, and Barbara starts to admire Diana for how cool and beautiful she is.

Then a new collection of artifacts comes in from Africa, for which Barbara did all the legwork to acquire for the museum. Diana holds a press conference as the museum PR person, but Barbara becomes jealous as she gets no credit from Diana, and she starts to harbour jealousy for Diana - she no longer wants to be her, now she wants to destroy her (this is where the personalities of Priscilla Rich and Barbara Minerva can be 'combined').

One night while inspecting the new African collection, Barbara accidentally cuts herself on the ritual blood dagger of the ancient Urzkartaga cult. This is the chance for a very sexy transformation scene that could make Cat People and Species look like child's play. Depending on how long the movie is, they could even do a couple scenes - maybe in the museum after getting scratched, she only acquires some "surface" aspects of the Cheetah character, but then later at night, she transforms completely in her own apartment after a short monologue about how much she hates Diana and longs to release the "predator" within.

And here's where we mention the costume: of course there will have to be plenty of CGI elements to her transformation, but the actual Cheetah costume itself should be practical and physical, like the Wonder Woman costume is. If you have a beautiful and shapely actress playing the role, there should be no issue with this. Touch it up here and there in post-production, but spend the money and film her wearing the best possible actual Cheetah catsuit and makeup. It can work!

In any case, the newly transformed Cheetah goes out to hunt Diana, but encounters some lovers in the park at night near the museum. She hates them, too, so she kills them first to establish her villainy. That could be when Diana, who is working late in the museum, hears the screams of those victims, and she emerges as Wonder Woman to fight Cheetah. This is basically the "fight in the park" from the 1980s origin story of Cheetah as told in the Wonder Woman comic. Unprepared for Cheetah's ferocity and speed, Wonder Woman holds her own but ultimately loses and is scratched, while Cheetah escapes.

The next day, both of the women are at work, but Barbara sees the scratch that Diana has, and with her newfound animal powers, she recognizes Diana's scent. Perhaps (and I'm not sure this would work) they confront each other in private somewhere in the museum (a storage room? a bathroom?) where Barbara reveals to Diana that she knows she is Wonder Woman, and Diana responds by promising to thwart and imprison Cheetah if she ever tries anything again like she did in the park.

Realizing that she can't beat Wonder Woman alone on her home turf, Barbara looks up more information on the Urzkartaga cult
and books a trip to Africa to recruit the cult worshippers, figuring that if she obtains all of their worship and their blood sacrifice, it will increase her power to the point of being able to overwhelm Wonder Woman. Cut to a new scene in Africa, where she is worshipped by a group of tribesmen, who offer her their blood as it drips from her mouth in sexy ecstacy.

Meanwhile, Diana is perturbed by the sudden disappearance of Barbara, and Steve helps her discover that Barbara has hopped a plane to Africa. Maybe there's even a news story which broadcasts alarmingly about a new "bloodthirsty cult leader" in Africa. Diana realizes that Barbara could be a threat, but Steve assures her that his special ops team is very good at staging "coups" in Third World nations, and that he and his team will quietly "depose" Barbara and her cult and bring her back for trial.

Cut to Africa, and Steve's Seal Team Six (of diverse ethnic backgrounds, natch) stalking through the jungle looking for the cult, when they are set upon by the cultists. At least a couple of the soliders die (not the black guy!) while fighting them off, and the remainder are captured. They encounter Barbara as Cheetah, who vows to drain their virile blood to give herself more power, and also interrogates them to see if anyone else is following in their footsteps. There should be a good scene of Steve being tortured very sexily by Cheetah.

Cut back to the museum in D.C. where Diana, who holds a special psychic bond with Steve, has a "flash of insight" about Steve and his men calling out for help. This is where we get the full Wonder Woman treatment: first she transforms, then flies up into the air to rendezvous in the sky with her invisible plan which she has summoned from Themyscira. This would be a glorious sequence of power and beauty display, much like in the WW84 movie but more succinct and better organized.

So, Diana lands the plane in Africa near the soldiers' helicopter, and frees Steve and his men after a pitched battle with the cultists where she throws them around like ragdolls. They escape into the jungle with Cheetah and the remainder of the cultists on the hunt for Diana and the soldiers. Steve and his men fight the cultists on the side, while Wonder Woman engages in the Battle Royale with the Cheetah in the jungle.

However, Cheetah is even stronger and more ferocious than before, on her own home turf, and Wonder Woman ends up in serious peril, scratched and bloody as Cheetah attempts to drown her in a river. Just as she does so, Cheetah sees her reflection in the water as Barbara Minerva, and Diana through careful convincing is able to instill just enough doubt in Cheetah to distract her as Steve and the men bring down Cheetah with a barrage of tranq darts. "Glad we brought these along," says Steve, as the amazing Gal Gadot gives him the sexiest "we are going to smash later" look imaginable.

Not sure how this movie would conclude after that (maybe Diana could be seen giving a report about the incident to the Justice League?) but I know you'd have to include a scene where Cheetah is inside a specially reinforced prison (Iron Heights or Belle Reve or something like that?) where she is back to being Barbara Minerva but still retains some of the Cheetah qualities in her appearance, and she growls and swears revenge just as the prison guard arrives to slide a tray full of raw meat into her cell. Maybe Amanda Waller from the Suicide Squad shows up to offer her a chance at redemption at the end?

The whole point of this plot is that no Max Lord (especially no terrible version of an inconsistently wish-granting Max Lord, who is obviously also a stand-in for Trump, capitalism and toxic masculinity) was needed at all. Focusing solely on the Cheetah cuts the movie run time by at least 40% (which it desperately needed - it was way too long) and focuses entirely on her conflict with just one villain, which is all a movie needs to succeed. If there's to be a subplot, then maybe it's Diana and Steve's romance - they could have a dinner by candlelight somewhere and that would satisfy the "rom-com" elements of the audience.

Hey, you asked. So now, what do you think??
Dazzle1
Millenium Member
Millenium Member
Posts: 1768
Joined: 10 years ago

dlo005 wrote:
3 years ago
DrDominator9 wrote:
3 years ago
Has anybody seen the movie "Professor Marston and his Wonder Woman."

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=pr ... ORM=VIREHT
thanks for posting doc, ive heard of the man but didnt realize a motion pic had been done about him. looks like you can watch the complete film online here https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=pr ... ORM=VDRVRV
It would be great, if someone did a version of this story for our genre
Damselbinder

shevek wrote:
3 years ago
Yes, the Marston film was pretty great - very moody and erotic period piece.

For those who are mentioning Angel, Buffy and Highlander...think about how stupid it is that there *wasn't* a live-action Wonder Woman TV show in the 90s..it would have easily been even more popular than Xena, right around the final era where sexy "bad girl" heroines were not only allowed to exist, but they thrived in all media.

As for how I would write a Wonder Woman movie, it's simple - I would fully credit Greg Rucka, Liam Sharp and Nicola Scott for their work on the Wonder Woman Rebirth title and then adapt it to film, setting it in the present day and totally ignoring the WWI period of the previous film, which didn't make any sense to begin with. No World War II Nazis, no 60s or 80s retro.

Here's the plot:

Wonder Woman's secret identity is Diana Prince, who works at a museum in D.C. and is an expert on ancient artifacts, being thousands of years old herself. She is already known as Wonder Woman, having been introduced to the modern-day audiences by her appearances in BVS and Justice League. She is already a member of the Justice League. She is already the girlfriend of Colonel
Steve Trevor, who works in D.C. within the Pentagon (maybe sometime during the movie, they have a candlelight dinner where they profess their love for each other, and they reminisce about how she found him on the beach of Themyscira and followed him back to Man's World out of love for both him and a curiosity about humanity in general).

Enter Dr. Barbara Minerva, who gets a job at the museum in the collections department. She is socially awkward, but instead of being played by Kristin Wiig, who was terrible, she is cast with a much hotter actress (you name it, there are a dozen who could fit this role) so that her transformation is much more drastic and a hell of a lot sexier. Diana and Barbara meet each other in the museum, and Barbara starts to admire Diana for how cool and beautiful she is.

Then a new collection of artifacts comes in from Africa, for which Barbara did all the legwork to acquire for the museum. Diana holds a press conference as the museum PR person, but Barbara becomes jealous as she gets no credit from Diana, and she starts to harbour jealousy for Diana - she no longer wants to be her, now she wants to destroy her (this is where the personalities of Priscilla Rich and Barbara Minerva can be 'combined').

One night while inspecting the new African collection, Barbara accidentally cuts herself on the ritual blood dagger of the ancient Urzkartaga cult. This is the chance for a very sexy transformation scene that could make Cat People and Species look like child's play. Depending on how long the movie is, they could even do a couple scenes - maybe in the museum after getting scratched, she only acquires some "surface" aspects of the Cheetah character, but then later at night, she transforms completely in her own apartment after a short monologue about how much she hates Diana and longs to release the "predator" within.

And here's where we mention the costume: of course there will have to be plenty of CGI elements to her transformation, but the actual Cheetah costume itself should be practical and physical, like the Wonder Woman costume is. If you have a beautiful and shapely actress playing the role, there should be no issue with this. Touch it up here and there in post-production, but spend the money and film her wearing the best possible actual Cheetah catsuit and makeup. It can work!

In any case, the newly transformed Cheetah goes out to hunt Diana, but encounters some lovers in the park at night near the museum. She hates them, too, so she kills them first to establish her villainy. That could be when Diana, who is working late in the museum, hears the screams of those victims, and she emerges as Wonder Woman to fight Cheetah. This is basically the "fight in the park" from the 1980s origin story of Cheetah as told in the Wonder Woman comic. Unprepared for Cheetah's ferocity and speed, Wonder Woman holds her own but ultimately loses and is scratched, while Cheetah escapes.

The next day, both of the women are at work, but Barbara sees the scratch that Diana has, and with her newfound animal powers, she recognizes Diana's scent. Perhaps (and I'm not sure this would work) they confront each other in private somewhere in the museum (a storage room? a bathroom?) where Barbara reveals to Diana that she knows she is Wonder Woman, and Diana responds by promising to thwart and imprison Cheetah if she ever tries anything again like she did in the park.

Realizing that she can't beat Wonder Woman alone on her home turf, Barbara looks up more information on the Urzkartaga cult
and books a trip to Africa to recruit the cult worshippers, figuring that if she obtains all of their worship and their blood sacrifice, it will increase her power to the point of being able to overwhelm Wonder Woman. Cut to a new scene in Africa, where she is worshipped by a group of tribesmen, who offer her their blood as it drips from her mouth in sexy ecstacy.

Meanwhile, Diana is perturbed by the sudden disappearance of Barbara, and Steve helps her discover that Barbara has hopped a plane to Africa. Maybe there's even a news story which broadcasts alarmingly about a new "bloodthirsty cult leader" in Africa. Diana realizes that Barbara could be a threat, but Steve assures her that his special ops team is very good at staging "coups" in Third World nations, and that he and his team will quietly "depose" Barbara and her cult and bring her back for trial.

Cut to Africa, and Steve's Seal Team Six (of diverse ethnic backgrounds, natch) stalking through the jungle looking for the cult, when they are set upon by the cultists. At least a couple of the soliders die (not the black guy!) while fighting them off, and the remainder are captured. They encounter Barbara as Cheetah, who vows to drain their virile blood to give herself more power, and also interrogates them to see if anyone else is following in their footsteps. There should be a good scene of Steve being tortured very sexily by Cheetah.

Cut back to the museum in D.C. where Diana, who holds a special psychic bond with Steve, has a "flash of insight" about Steve and his men calling out for help. This is where we get the full Wonder Woman treatment: first she transforms, then flies up into the air to rendezvous in the sky with her invisible plan which she has summoned from Themyscira. This would be a glorious sequence of power and beauty display, much like in the WW84 movie but more succinct and better organized.

So, Diana lands the plane in Africa near the soldiers' helicopter, and frees Steve and his men after a pitched battle with the cultists where she throws them around like ragdolls. They escape into the jungle with Cheetah and the remainder of the cultists on the hunt for Diana and the soldiers. Steve and his men fight the cultists on the side, while Wonder Woman engages in the Battle Royale with the Cheetah in the jungle.

However, Cheetah is even stronger and more ferocious than before, on her own home turf, and Wonder Woman ends up in serious peril, scratched and bloody as Cheetah attempts to drown her in a river. Just as she does so, Cheetah sees her reflection in the water as Barbara Minerva, and Diana through careful convincing is able to instill just enough doubt in Cheetah to distract her as Steve and the men bring down Cheetah with a barrage of tranq darts. "Glad we brought these along," says Steve, as the amazing Gal Gadot gives him the sexiest "we are going to smash later" look imaginable.

Not sure how this movie would conclude after that (maybe Diana could be seen giving a report about the incident to the Justice League?) but I know you'd have to include a scene where Cheetah is inside a specially reinforced prison (Iron Heights or Belle Reve or something like that?) where she is back to being Barbara Minerva but still retains some of the Cheetah qualities in her appearance, and she growls and swears revenge just as the prison guard arrives to slide a tray full of raw meat into her cell. Maybe Amanda Waller from the Suicide Squad shows up to offer her a chance at redemption at the end?

The whole point of this plot is that no Max Lord (especially no terrible version of an inconsistently wish-granting Max Lord, who is obviously also a stand-in for Trump, capitalism and toxic masculinity) was needed at all. Focusing solely on the Cheetah cuts the movie run time by at least 40% (which it desperately needed - it was way too long) and focuses entirely on her conflict with just one villain, which is all a movie needs to succeed. If there's to be a subplot, then maybe it's Diana and Steve's romance - they could have a dinner by candlelight somewhere and that would satisfy the "rom-com" elements of the audience.

Hey, you asked. So now, what do you think??
Certainly has a lot of interesting ideas!
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