Wonder Woman TV Show Stalled

[Goto UPDATE 1-21-11]

Entertainment Weekly is reporting that the Wonder Woman TV show script Warner Bros. was shopping around that David E Kelley was attached to (Rebooting Wonder Woman?) has come up empty in finding a network willing to take on the enterprise.

I’m not kicking the dirt about this one. As I mentioned in my previous article, this just didn’t seem to have the smell of success. The fact is that WW fans haven’t been clamoring for a series, they want a worthy movie.

It’s amazing how difficult it’s been for any live-action Wonder Woman project to take flight (invisible plane notwithstanding). I pondered this problem for quite a while. Lynda Carter’s shadow looms very large. So do the tepid results of so many superhero movies. It’s resulted in a sort of creative block with Wonder Woman–no one is willing to chance failure with this icon. It’s tough when you actually try to factor in creative choices to appeal to a wide demographic while fighting all the “numbers” some non-writer generates to “guarantee a blockbuster”. I’ve thought about it off and on since back when Joss Whedon was attempting his own take on the problem.

You can do a lot with the story. Wonder Woman lends itself to topicality. In the end, there is really but one major problem that must be dealt with: the costume. If you come up with a solution to that, then many of the other hassles are manageable. The trick, as many filmmakers have discovered, is that while you are allowed to update, if you go too far you will never get the fans back on your side. It’s like I outlined in “Five Tips For Getting Television and Science Fiction to Play Nice“, you have to respect the story and you have to respect the audience.

It took a while, but a solution flashed into my head–a very similar inspirational flash to what happened with the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles 2nd season finale that drove me to write The Connor Wars. If WB wants to see what I can do, I’m more than ready to come up with something they can ponder.

In any event, it appears that Wonder Woman is going to have to endure bumping her head on the animation glass ceiling while many other (male) DC and Marvel heroes get to take their chance at grabbing the brass ring.

UPDATE 1-21-2011: And now Entertainment Weekly reports that NBC has picked up Kelley’s WW. Honestly, I don’t know what to think at this point. I can only hope that the network that attempted to reboot the Bionic Woman (which I thought wasn’t awful) and Knight Rider (which really was really awful…really) can do a better job with an icon who deserves a fantastic effort.