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Why WW Failed: By Joss Whedon
Last year, David E. Kelley tried to revive Wonder Woman on TV. Unfortunately, his version never got past the pilot stage. Even though he's an award-winning writer, something about his vision didn't ring true.
The CW recently announced they're developing a pilot called Amazon, which may be Wonder Woman's return to grace. But why has it taken so long? While talking to CraveOnline, Joss Whedon spoke about Hollywood's Wonder Woman problem, and why he thinks Kelley's pilot didn't make the cut.
"I don't think that was a match. I just don't. I don't think that he needs to write about superheroes," Whedon said. "You need to need to write about superheroes to write about superheroes. If that's not in your vernacular, you may bring something new and interesting to it, but at the end of the day, if you don't have that burning desire to talk about these people who have these insane powers, then some other agenda is going to come forward and you might accidentally turn off the dark."
Could that have been the issue? Whedon is a fan of comics and strong female characters. He's also spent a fair amount of time in the superhero genre. Do you think that's where Kelley went wrong? From what we've heard of the pilot, it was very campy—and not in a good way. The costume looked cheap and the fight choreography was underwhelming.
Hopefully, The CW's Amazon can avoid those pitfalls.
Personally, I think he's dead on....it takes someone who "gets" superheroes to write them...AND respect their origins and mythos. Enough of this "reimagining" crap!!!
ElF
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- lfan
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- jnw550
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- jdrock24
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I think people had the total lynch mob mentality the second a few reviewers hated it and already had passed judgment. OK, I get the fact that "WW doesn't kill" (personally, it didn't bother me that much), but in terms of a high-budget pilot, it wasn't THAT bad. Certainly better than some of the schlock that made the cut that season. Remember Pan-Am and the Playboy Club? Yeah, nobody else does either....
ElF
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- lfan
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Poor writing, inexcusable. I am glad they killed it early.
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Markiehoe wrote: Thanks to an alert member of the forum I was able to see the pilot. The production values were good and it did have good action scenes. Adrienne did not stand a chance as Wonder Woman because the writing was so poor. She was depicted as an un likeable character and a needless killer. She kills one thug for no reason, with her strength and bracelets she was not in any danger from him and yet fails to kill Elizabeth Hurley's character.
Poor writing, inexcusable. I am glad they killed it early.
True on all the points, still I think that Adrienne Palicki was a good choice, as far as looks goes. But, I agree the writing was too involved and having a killing main character is not a good way to handle a show with a possible recurring villain.
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- Woodclaw
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This just goes to show again though the original point is that you need FANS of the characters to understand and write them. I think a lot of the problems with the dialog and script coulda been avoided with some basic knowledge AND RESPECT of the character and her background.
ElF
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lfan wrote: [Snip] It takes someone who "gets" superheroes to write them...AND respect their origins and mythos. Enough of this "reimagining" crap!!! ElF
Even then it's hard - so I agree there is probably no hope for the others...
Lot's of fun potential poorly executed out there... ..."Revolution" anyone? ~ what a shame.
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- Random321
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Anon wrote:
Markiehoe wrote: Thanks to an alert member of the forum I was able to see the pilot. The production values were good and it did have good action scenes. Adrienne did not stand a chance as Wonder Woman because the writing was so poor. She was depicted as an un likeable character and a needless killer. She kills one thug for no reason, with her strength and bracelets she was not in any danger from him and yet fails to kill Elizabeth Hurley's character.
Poor writing, inexcusable. I am glad they killed it early.
True on all the points, still I think that Adrienne Palicki was a good choice, as far as looks goes. But, I agree the writing was too involved and having a killing main character is not a good way to handle a show with a possible recurring villain.
I thought Palicki was perfect for the role. Tall, beautiful, strong, absolutely perfect. It would great to have her play the role in the rewrite.
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