One of the downsides of the current success of the comic-book movie genre is that the pressure to deliver a hit time after time eventually catches up on the studios, the directors, the crew members and the actors who try to live up to the new standard with each passing installment. Marvel has a proven brand, one that should be able to sustain a misstep – if and when that swing-and-miss eventually comes. But the Amazing Spider-Man franchise is one example of a series that got off its track, and the pressure hanging over Sony to right that ship and restore the character’s integrity is palpable.
The pressure to deliver on the superhero front is being given as a reason why one female director, Lexi Alexander, says she’d never accept the Wonder Woman gig that’s currently being set up at Warner Bros. Alexander hasn’t been offered the job, even though her name is frequently attached to wish-list features (like one we ran recently) because of the work she did on the gritty, bloodthirsty Punisher: War Zone. But in an interview with Fast Company, she spells out why the pressure to deliver on the first female-driven superhero film would be too much to get her into the director’s chair:
We finally get Wonder Woman with a female director: imagine if it fails? And you have no control over marketing, over budget. So without any control, you carry the fucking weight of gender equality for both characters and women directors. No way."
Lexi Alexander often talks in extremes, but something about her comment – in this situation – struck me as honest… and it’s possible she isn’t alone in feeling this way. Right after announcing that Wonder Woman would in fact receive a solo standalone film in 2017, the studio has hinted that they want a female director to bring Diana (played by Gal Gadot) to the big screen. It’s a noble thought, but it might be one that comes with so much pressure, a female director won’t want to attempt to be that groundbreaking pioneer. Who will fanboys blame if Wonder Woman isn’t good? If Lexi Alexander feels this way and willingly shares this concern, is it possible that other qualified contenders like Jane Goldman or Michelle MacLaren share this early concern and don’t want to step off of that ledge?
I certainly hope this isn’t the case. I’d like to believe that there are big enough ideas at play in a possible Wonder Woman movie that any director – male or female – could dial in and turn the material into a hit. Audiences are extremely receptive to superhero films, at the moment, and even "failures" like The Amazing Spider-Man 2 earn north of $700 million at the global box office. Wonder Woman seems destined to succeed, just off the curiosity factor, alone. If the studio goes ahead as planned and makes it a period piece – a la Captain America: The First Avenger - the interest level could even be higher than expected.
At the same time, any director contemplating the solo Wonder Woman movie has to deal with a handful of unknowns at the moment. They haven’t see Gal Gadot in action. They don’t know, fully, how the character will be introduced in Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. And they don’t know how the movie landscape will change between now and 2017. But that isn’t about being a female director trying to get a foot in the door of the comic-book genre. That’s about being part of the mysterious process of building a Cinematic Universe… and that comes with it’s own unique forms of pressure.
