Yesterday, Warner Brothers did what studios do these days: announce superhero movies and spin-offs. This announcement was a little different than the usual proceedings, though, because among the 15 projects they announced between now and 2020, there was a female superhero movie (just one) among the lineup: Wonder Woman.
We’ve all been waiting a long time for a superhero movie with a female protagonist. But we shouldn’t stop at or be satisfied with just one. Women are half the world, and having one female superhero movie a decade (Elektra debuted in 2005) is not going to cut it.
And even though we want many more movies about women, we should focus on this event as an opportunity to encourage the studio to hire a women writer and director. Now, let’s be clear — we are not saying that a woman shouldn’t write or direct any of the 14 other films on slate. But how cool would it be to have a woman write or direct a major studio superhero movie about a woman? We’ve got one female co-writer on a superhero movie to date: Nicole Perlman from this summer’s Guardians of the Galaxy. We need more.
We did a little crowdsourcing, and here are some thoughts from the twittersphere (and a couple of our own) of talented visionaries who could write and/or direct the upcoming Wonder Woman film.
Every woman on this list has enough credits to get this job. This is not a pie-in-the-sky fantasy list. These are real women with real experience.
The time is now for a woman to break through this glass ceiling and be hired to direct a studio superhero film.
Directors
Michelle MacLaren
Kathryn Bigelow
Karen Kusama
Jessica Yu
Kimberly Peirce
Catherine Hardwicke
Patty Jenkins
Mary Harron
Mimi Leder
Leslie Linka Glatter
Lexi Alexander
Writers
Jane Goldman
Jane Espenson
Lana Wachowski — Can direct too
Marti Noxon
Callie Khouri — Can direct too
Diablo Cody
Fran Walsh
Kelly Marcel
Katie Dippold
Brenda Chapman — Can direct too
Jennifer Lee — Can direct too
Nicole Perlman
Linda Woolverton