It took Patty Jenkins over a decade to direct her second feature film, yet her $8 million indie "Monster" out-grossed Colin Trevorrow's pre-Jurassic Park movie, Jordan Vogt-Roberts' pre-King Kong movie, and Peter Jackson's pre-LOTR movies. Combined. Her last movie "Monster," was also her debut, it even won Charlize Theron the Best Actress Oscar. The fact that Jenkins went 13 years without directing another feature film speaks volumes about Hollywood's problem with gender equality.
The massive success "Wonder Woman" had this summer must have given Jenkins a sweet feeling of justice prevailing. The film turned out to be the second highest grossing movie of the year, was met with rave reviews and a sequel has already been greenlit with Jenkins and star Gal Gadot returning for more Amazonian adventures. Even more so, the film brought upon an added dose of interest for this fall's upcoming "Justice League," which ended up having DC and Warner Bros, in a last minute effort, significantly expanding Wonder Woman's role in the film. With all that being said, one would expect Jenkins to have some kind of input on the upcoming "Justice League" film. After all, she has reinvigorated the DCEU with WW. Sadly, we learned, that was not the case.
Appearing at a promotional event at the Apple Store in New York's Soho district, Jenkins revealed that she was not approached by the WB as a consultant for "Justice League," which is being directed by Joss Whedon and Zack Snyder. That does not bode well for the way Wonder Woman might be portrayed in the film as Jenkins played a crucial role in molding Diana's traits and personality for her mega blockbuster. To add insult to injury, "Justice League" is already being plagued by rumors about its messy production.
At that same Apple store talk, Jenkins also revealed a regret she had with Wonder Woman's theatrical cut. According to the 46-year-old filmmaker, there were memorable scenes, "tiny jokes" and moments that were "hard to lose," which ended up being deleted to trim down the movie's running time:
"If I had my druthers, the movie would be longer with little tiny jokes and moments that were hard to lose. Particularly because the great thing about these actors is you have such talented funny capable people, so that was already great material for them to work from and then they all just like every mess around would be delightful. So it’s really hard to cut a movie like that down, and so just that sort of stuff, [the] details."
Hopefully, we'll be able to watch her original vision, tiny jokes and all, in an "extended cut" release of the film, which we can see happening in the foreseeable future.
[Comic Book Movie]