Hardcopi wrote:
Excerpts from an interview with Joss Whedon http://blogs.usatoday.com/popcandy/2005/12/a_qa_with_joss_.html


And right now you're mostly working on Wonder Woman. Every filmmaker learns lessons with each movie, but it seems like your lessons are bigger, or more publicized. What did you learn from making Serenity, Buffy and other films that you're keeping in mind while creating Wonder Woman?

The lesson I learned from every movie I wrote was, "Direct it yourself." The lesson I learned from Serenity was, "Give them something they can latch on to," and that's really in terms of marketing. I believe that Serenity is a well-told story, but I also believe that -- and I am actually pointing a finger at myself -- it is a tough movie to sell. There's great comfort in the fact that Wonder Woman is not.

It's tough to do, well, because it's not like Batman -- I mean, I think they did a wonderful job and came up with some beautiful, inventive stuff, so I'm not dissing anybody when I say Batman's a slam dunk. You know, his parents were killed, he lives in Gotham and he dresses like a bat! Game over, man. The fact that they made four bad Batman movies is kind of a testament to the triumph of the human spirit, because it's, like, almost impossible.

Wonder Woman doesn't have that, but she does have a great recognizability. You understand who she is and what she's about the moment you hear her name, which takes a great load off my shoulders. I don't see myself in Europe having people mis-translate my long and, quite frankly, even boring explanations of what exactly the movie's about.

So that makes this script less difficult to write than Serenity?

Nothing could be more of a challenge than introducing nine characters and trying to make an iconic film with so much of a backstory while hiding the backstory from people who haven't seen the (series). Serenity was an incredibly tough chore. But, you know, every script is incredibly tough when it comes to films, and Wonder Woman is working on a lot of levels that I haven't worked on before. I have to be very, very careful about not falling into the scariest trap of the superhero film: the second half.

To keep the second half emotionally resonant and surprising is the thing that makes me stare at my computer all day and weep. Structurally, it is not as hard as Serenity, but if I am lazy for even a heartbeat, it'll show, and it'll show wide and it'll show big. And your mistakes, man are they large in the cinerama-dome. It's different than TV.

So what percentage of Wonder Woman is already written?

I'm afraid that's classified information! But I'm very close -- tell all the executives I'm very close. Closing in.

And I have to ask, what actresses are on the shortlist? People want names!

You know, the shortlist is so short that right now it says, "The List." ... I'm not even going there. Part of the unholy pact that (producer) Joel Silver and I made was that we're not even gonna talk about casting until we have a script and we see who's right for it. Have I thought of some people that maybe could work? Yes. Am I going to say their names? No.