“Wonder Woman 1984” dipped a strong 67% in its second week of available theaters in North America, perhaps proving that some things — like blockbusters losing a lot of business after their opening week — say the same during a global pandemic. The film has grossed $120 million globally so far,, and that’s a definitely muted response, but these are not normal times. The news cycle for “Wonder Woman 1984” is nearly over— though nearly falling below the rotten level of Rotten Tomatoes feels like something of a negative upcoming milestone (it’s a 60% now, one more percentage drop and it turns rotten) — but we’d be remiss if we didn’t recount this incredible story from ‘WW84’ director Patty Jenkins on Marc Maron‘s WTF podcast about the making of the original film and just how nervous and conflicted Warner Bros. was about making it originally. It’s best told chronologically.
First up, Jenkins reveals she was dead broke after the Oscar-winning and critically acclaimed “Monster,” going to Oscar parties and living off per diem, even turning down dinner invitations because she couldn’t pay for it. During this period, she tried to make a movie about Chuck Yeager, and tried to make an “I Am Superman” film with Ryan Gosling, but “Wonder Woman” was always calling her. Jenkins told Warner Bros. in 2004 that she wanted to make “Wonder Woman” and met with them about it every two years, between then and when she finally made it.
When they finally did hire her, Jenkins still had a lot of fear, mistrust,, and just wanted her to execute their ideas rather than bring her own vision to the movie. “They wanted to hire me like a beard; they wanted me to walk around on set as a woman, but it was their story and their vision,” Jenkins recalled. “And my ideas? They didn’t even want to read my script. There was such mistrust of a different way of doing things and a different point of view. So that was definitely happening, even when I first joined ‘Wonder Woman’ it was like, ‘uhh, yeah, ok, but let’s do it this other way.’ But I was like, ‘Women don’t want to see that. Her being harsh and tough and cutting people’s heads off, that’s not what— I’m a ‘Wonder Woman’ fan, that’s not what we’re looking for. Still, I could feel that shaky nervousness [on their part] of my point of view.”
Jenkins said, they actually asked her to make the movie in 2007, but she was pregnant at the time and had to turn them down. But she could still sense their apprehension about what direction to go into. “They were nervous that it wasn’t viable. They were all freaked out by all the female superhero films that had failed, the smaller ones that had failed, and also Christopher Nolan was making the ‘Dark Knight‘ thing, so I think they were just trying to figure out what they were doing with DC at that time.”
Then, around 2011 she was back on “Wonder Woman,” but briefly left the project because she couldn’t agree with WB on the direction (she pursued “Thor: The Dark World” in the interim, but that obviously went nowhere). “Finally, the moment came [when Warners wanted me to make the film],” she described. “And there was a moment they wanted to make a story that I wasn’t the right person for, so I [left and] said, ‘it can’t be me,’ and they hired someone else for a little bit [editor’s note: Michelle MacClaren]. I told them what kind of film I wanted to make. I said, ‘I don’t think this is the story you should tell with Wonder Woman,’ and I didn’t want to be the one to get in a fight about it for years.”
Eventually, they parted ways with MacLaren a year later and let Jenkins make the movie she wanted to make, but the filmmaker painted a portrait of a studio who didn’t know what they wanted and were hedging their bets. They had “about 30 scripts,” written she said about all the variations and versions WB attempted. “During that period of time, there were so many scripts, I could see the writing on the wall,” she said. “The was an internal war on every level about what Wonder Woman should be.”
READ MORE: ‘Wonder Woman 3’ In Development With Patty Jenkins Returning To Write And Direct
But for all their fear and worries, by the time Warner Bros. came back to Jenkins to finally make the film, they basically let her make the movie she wanted to make (save for the ending). A year later, after parting ways with her, they called Jenkins back and said, “Actually, do you wanna make it your way?’ And boom, I just made the movie.”
It’s a pretty remarkable story and one you need to listen to it yourself, below, on Maron’s podcast.