wonder woman
From Themyscira to the trenches of WW1, join us on set with the solo superhero the world’s been waiting for.
Amazons! War! Horses!
After 75 years, Wonder Woman has finally lassoed the big screen. Total Film heads on set to see how Gal Gadot and co are doing justice to a comic-book legend…
Always great theme music. That’s just one of the many wonders of Wonder Woman. In the 21st Century, it’s Hans Zimmer’s glorious guitar riff, as first twanged in last year’s Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice. But kids of the ’70s will recall being equally earwormed by the Lynda Carter TV show’s disco intro, with lyrics that far outstripped other super-series (“Na-na na-na na-na na-na, Batmaaaan…” and so on): “Wonder Wo-maaan, Wonder Wo-maaan, all the world’s waiting for you and the power you possess… Now the world is ready for you!” But let’s dash back in time a little. It’s February 2016, and Wonder Woman is being readied for the world: welcome to day 45 of principal photography on the DC Comics icon’s first ever solo cinema venture. Of course, we already know Gal Gadot’s Amazonian princess-slash-demigoddess from her set-piece-stealing turn in BvS. But Patty Jenkins’ (2003’s Monster) movie is a 100-year rewind that brings Diana Prince’s backstory to the big screen for the first time. “Today, we’re shooting the scene in the throne room,” Gadot tells TF, gesturing to the Leavesden Studios interior. The vast soundstage has been set-dressed to the nines: gold chairs, the occasional sculpted panther head, and a long staircase stretching up to a spiral-shaped throne (yes, we get to have a go, and it proves surprisingly good for sprawling about in). With green and gold light bouncing off the cave-like walls, the effect is so grand that TF has to suppress an urge to bellow, à la Gerard Butler, “This. Is. Themyscira!” in honour of the mystical homeland (home-island, to be exact) of the Amazons. Pausing to ask a Warner Bros publicist if it’s OK to spill a few plot beans, Gadot continues, “The Amazons take Steve Trevor [ Chris Pine] to the throne room, where he’s questioned about what his motives are, and how he got to the island.” How indeed? The answer is some sort of inter-dimensional breach that catapults US airman Steve from Earth (where he’s busy fighting in World War 1) to this other-place, populated entirely by women of wonder. He’s discovered by Diana, whose curiosity is piqued by this bizarre bloke-being. “She was brought to life by Zeus,” explains Gadot, “and has never seen a man in her entire life. So this is the journey of her coming of age, of how she becomes a grown-up and comes to see life through different eyes.”
Rather than the worldly – and somewhat world-weary – character we saw in BvS, the Diana we meet here is “a young idealist”, says Gadot, who leaves home to help Steve fight the good fight. Only it’s not that simple. “She realises that the world is not only good, or only bad – it’s complicated and there are more layers – there’s lots of grey.”
Lots of green, too. Not just those just reflections on the walls – produced, TF’s told, by ‘luminescent water’ created by those clever-clogs Amazons – but the olive-hued army uniforms that fill rack upon rack in the costume department. Elsewhere, our whistle-stop tour takes in an array of Amazonian armour: training armour, hunting armour
‘She was brought to life by Zeus, and has never seen a man’ Gal Gadot
and a suitably stately get-up designed for Connie Nielsen’s Queen Hippolyta (ie Diana’s mum) with a belt bearing a ‘WW’ logo. (Can we expect the equivalent of Man Of Steel’s “It’s not an ‘S’” scene?). There are mood boards covered with images of strong, iconic women, from Katharine Hepburn as an aviator in 1933’s Christopher Strong to – someone call the franchise police! – Marvel Comics’ fiery Phoenix. And, naturally, an abundance of pics of our heroine herself, including her original early-’40s comic incarnation, and Lynda Carter in her star-spangled ’70s pomp.
Moving on to props, we get an eyeful of a dizzying variety of swords, arrow heads, shields, pipe bombs, axes, breastplates and tiaras. Two conclusions: 1) Wonder Woman will offer a fascinating mash-up of styles, both historical and meta-human. 2) There’s going to be a lot of fighting.
The actors confirm as much. “I’ve been training almost every day, very intensively,” says Gadot, dressed in gymready t-shirt, purple trainers and kneeless leggings. “I’ve been doing stunts, martial arts, I’ve learned how to use swords, how to fight, how to be very, very strong… Now I’m not afraid to walk home alone at night!” On the other hand, being an Amazon can really take it out of you, as Connie Nielsen explains: “The first month, I was so exhausted,” she sighs. “I remember the casting director calling my agent and saying: ‘Wow, what’s happening?! Connie looks like somebody’s sucked the blood out of her!’” From the sound of things, Chris Pine had it a lot easier, all round: “I’m in a few fist fights, so I’ve had to train a bit for that,” he says, cradling a bottle of water. Recalling one particular barney, he adds: “It was cold… although, mind you, I had winter sweaters on. Gal wasn’t in much of anything!”
Venturing to the exterior set that Pine mentioned,
TF can report that it is, indeed, proper chilly. At one end of the mud-soaked set is a Belgian town circa the 1910s – or rather, the bombed-out remains of one. Broken windows, oil lamps, sugar soap… the detail-rich illusion is only marred by a large greenscreen sheet flapping atop a partially built church. Squelching further afield, we get to No Man’s Land – the backdrop for the big moment where, as seen in the trailer, Diana emerges from the trenches in full costume and charges, alone, at the enemy. “She’s way more badass than I am,” marvels Chris Pine.
Today, TF doesn’t get to witness any on-set action; instead, a more quietly intense scene involving Gadot, Pine, Nielsen and, most thrilling of all, some real-life horses. We’re back indoors, on Leavesden’s C stage, where a tracksuit-wearing Nielsen sits astride a four-legged thesp, who does a few rehearsal trots up a ramp into a greenscreen enclosure that’s standing in for a waterfront. There’s a
mock-up of a boat, a giant archway that could’ve come from the Nielsen-starring Gladiator, wind machines, human dummies… plus the only-on-a-film-set sight of a man in a green unitard helping the horse hit its mark.
A short while later, Nielsen re-emerges in full furryshouldered regalia, along with the Queen’s apparent PA. As cameras roll, they ride up to a be-cloaked Gadot. Pine hangs back on the boat as Nielsen and Gadot have a charged conversation that involves some face-cupping and the passing on of a vital Amazonian artefact (“Make sure you are worthy of it,” says one party, forebodingly). Meanwhile, our lime-green horse whisperer (who’ll later be digitally deleted), keeps the equine thesps calm and contented.
Between takes, TF grabs the chance to chat with director Patty Jenkins. Who, it’s fair to say, is happy to be here. “I can actually say – totally genuinely – that I love this movie so much,” she beams, perching on a stool. “I’ve wanted to do it for a long time – I’ve been talking to [ Warner Bros] on and off about it for eight, nine years.”
The long wait between Jenkins’ initial pitch and finally calling ‘Action!’ did at least see Hollywood make some much-needed progress regarding action roles for women, as she explains: “I think there’s been a lag in catching up to where feminism has gone. It’s taken a long time before a woman who can fight can actually be treated like a universal character.” For some while, she says, Wonders’ gender was an issue, especially in relation to action. “I think there was a lot of fear associated with Wonder Woman. People were like, ‘How can a woman fight? How can a woman be sexy and be violent at the same time?’” Luckily, she says, those questions aren’t being asked so much now. “I think it’s finally time we can just stop talking about that aspect of it and she can just be a universal character. Many other universal female protagonists are showing up on screen where they’re the main character, not a ‘woman’ main character.”
Like her director, Gadot feels Wonder Woman’s big-screen debut is overdue: “It’s about time we showed the story of a female superhero,” she says, bringing to mind the paucity of caped ladies versus the number of super-chaps (not to mention rebooted super-chaps) we’ve seen over the years. But what’s really refreshing about this movie, she says, is that, “It’s not pushing for feminism. And what I mean by that is, no one comes and preaches about equality and how come women are not allowed to vote, or be in a congress room… it’s not about that. It’s about the perspective of Diana, coming from an island where everybody has the same rights.
When she comes to this ‘man’s world’ she finds it very odd that women don’t get treated the same way. Because for her, gender is a non-issue.”
It sounds as if Diana finds herself as a classic fish-outof-water – a situation that’s often a springboard for laughs in the movies. Is that the case here? Given the somewhat grim ’n’ gritty disposition of the DCEU films so far ( Man Of
Steel, BvS, Suicide Squad), will Wonder Woman be a departure, or just as dark? “We’re right smack in the middle,” says Jenkins of the tone. “We’re funny, romantic, exciting… I don’t think we’re particularly dark. But nor are we particularly tongue-incheek.” Jenkins promises an approach that’s “simple and classic” but new-fashioned, too. “A lot of the fighting stuff is on-edge modern,” she says. For one thing, she and her fight coordinators have striven to give the Amazons their own unique scrapping style. “They fight differently from men, but it’s just as effective,” she notes. “They work together as a team, instead of it just being about raw force. It’s not about your punch – it’s about your lasso, your arrow, your jump, your strategy… teamwork!”
The filmmakers found their Amazons by putting out a casting call for performers over 5ft 7in. Those who made it through the audition process include MMA fighters, roller derby players and professional dancers. “It’s a big celebration of women,” says Gadot, noting that it’s something of a first “to be on set with 75 gorgeous, beautiful, strong women”.
The numbers aren’t quite that high today (though TF does experience its own first – Amazons wearing puffa jackets). We do get a peek, however, at some production art that gives a vivid sense of the film’s scale (including a painting called Final Battle that proves disappointingly un-spoilery). There are also stills of key characters we’ve not had a chance to meet in the flesh: Steve’s secretary Etta (Lucy Davis), who takes a swift shine to Diana (and looks set to be a zinger-dispensing scene-pincher); Steve’s army buddies Sameer (Saïd Taghmaoui) and alcoholic sharp-shooter Charlie (Ewen Bremner); plus Diana’s aunt/Hippolyta’s sister General Antiope (Robin Wright), who reportedly has a big hand in honing Diana’s warrior skills.
Those are our goodies… but what about the baddies? “We’re up against seemingly insurmountable forces of douchbaggery,” Pine puts it poetically. Alas, more specific intel proves in short supply today, though Jenkins does offer the tidbit that David Thewlis plays a member of the British war council who’s “a two-faced little bastard” (‘two-faced’ possibly being the operative word…). There’s also Danny Huston as a German general and Elena Anaya ( The Skin I Live In) as vintage WW villain Maru/Doctor Poison; expect some form of chemical warfare to figure in the plot. God of War Ares gets his name bandied about, too. The good news is, whatever nefarious scheme the d-bags are cooking, Wonders will get in the way. “She can stop the bad, stop the evil,” teases Gadot, “with a very specific thing that I can’t share with you because it’ll be a spoiler.”
If the movie’s macguffins remain under wraps for now, there’s one development everyone seems happy to discuss: Diana and Steve getting it on. Their hook-up is classic case of opposites attract, according to Gadot: “He’s new to her.
‘people were like, “how can a woman be sexy and violent?”’ Patty Jenkins
He’s the first man she’s ever met and there are so many aspects of his personality she hasn’t encountered before. He’s realistic, grounded, cynical… and she’s from Paradise Island [ Themyscira’s original comic-book name], where everything is harmonious and beautiful and everyone gets on with each other.” In the midst of world-shattering conflict, the two reach a tender understanding: “She reminds him of goodness, positivity, purity, innocence,” the actress continues. “And he teaches her about the real world, the complexities of mankind.” Pine sees the relationship as something of a rarity in superhero cinema: “A real, true love story. It wears its heart on its sleeve. There’s the big thematic thrust of a Casablanca kind of relationship, which I think is unusual in these big films, which tend to be brazenly not that.” Gadot also detects a certain throwback vibe: “It feels like an old-school, classical kind of movie. We don’t have edgy jokes – we have charming, beautiful, pure jokes that take you back 30, 40 years. There’s something magical about it.” “I agree,” adds Connie Nielsen. “There’s something that takes you back to Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, absolutely.” If Casablanca and Charade (1963) seem somewhat offbeat reference points for a superhero movie, there’s another, more likely touchstone, according to Gadot. “When I watched the film,” she says, some months later, “it felt like going back in time and watching the very first Superman.” Intriguingly, she highlights a particularly emotive moment in Richard Donner’s 1978 high-flyer: “When Lois Lane dies and [ Superman] flies off and spins the Earth from the outside [ turning back time].” Whether or not we can expect tragedy, torment or time travel in Wonder Woman remains to be seen.
On the other hand, we already know Diana’s fate: living incognito in modern-day Metropolis, focused more on buying antiques than twatting wrongdoers. Given her initial disillusionment in BvS, can we anticipate a downbeat arc in the new movie? “That’s the interesting thing about our process,” Gadot muses. “Starting at the end, then going back and exploring the beginning, the middle and then back to the end.” The film starts with Diana in modern-day Paris, receiving a flashback-stoking item from a familiar face. Doing things back to front proved revelatory, she says. “Something that we realised [ making this movie] is that Wonder Woman can never lose hope in mankind. In Batman
V Superman, we started that possibility – but after shooting this film, we saw that she’d never give up on humanity. That was eye-opening for me, the actors, the filmmakers, the producers… it was very interesting.”
‘A real, true love story. It wears its heart on its sleeve’ Chris Pine
One of those producers is Zack Snyder, who first brought Wonder to the world with BvS. Having worked with both him and Jenkins in such a short space of time, what differences did Gadot discern? “They’re both supertalented, they both had a very original vision on both movies,” she starts. “I think Zack’s just amazing with shooting practical, huge, heavy-action scenes, like I’ve never seen before. With Patty, I feel it’s all about the heart. Obviously the action is completely there, and unbelievably good, but I think what drives Patty more is the heart of the character, the emotional state of the character.”
Sounds like good news for those who felt that previous DCEU entries were perhaps not as emotionally available as they might have been. And for fans of Snyder’s heavy action, there’s more on the way with November’s super-friends get-together,
Justice League. Rather than spending most of her time slinking in the shadows à la BvS, Diana will be much more to the fore, Gadot reveals. “I would say that she and Batman are the leaders of the group. They’re kind of the adults, the most experienced, the visionaries of the League.” However, as with the Amazons, it’s all about teamwork. “But they can’t do it with just themselves, so obviously the League is very, very much needed.” Despite best intentions, some superheroes – not least Batman – do seem to struggle with playing nice with others. What does Diana prefer – being with the band, or going solo? “She’s good at both,” she smiles. “She finds it nice to have someone you can brainstorm with, go through situations with, to have that support. Because she cares for and loves each and every one [ of the League]. But you know, she can also do solo stuff!”
‘it’s about time we showed the story of a female superhero’ gal gadot
And if the planets – and box offices – align, she’ll be doing a lot more of it. She’s not the only superheroine striking out on her own: Captain Marvel and Joss Whedon’s recently announced Batgirl are on the way, while next year’s Ant-Man
And The Wasp will be the first MCU movie with a lady in the title. It’s somehow fitting that Wonder Woman, the world’s best-known, most enduring superheroine, should head up what’s hopefully not just a wave, but a sea change.
“I hope that the film is super-successful, and I hope therefore that it becomes something people believe in,” says Patty Jenkins when we speak again later. “I think that I’m not the only person who’s fighting that battle. I think things like
The Hunger Games have made a huge impact, and I think they helped open the door for us.” It’s April 2017, and Total Film is catching up with Jenkins in London’s Soho. The director is holed up in De Lane Lea – Warner Bros’ recording studio – close to finishing post-production work. With the editing complete and the picture locked, what remains for the currently ahead-of-schedule production is the sound mixing and the colour. “It’s like you’re putting the sound in and you’re balancing it out,” explains Jenkins, sipping from a flask of coffee. “It makes a huge difference.”
We’ve just been treated to approximately 20 minutes of completed footage, comprising key scenes in which Diana and Steve leave Themyscira for 1918 London; Diana takes a first bemused stroll through London’s filthy streets; baddies Ludendorff and Maru further their sinister plot; and the aforementioned trench warfare scene in which Diana goes over the top in spectacular style. Jenkins confesses that being on set “feels like a lifetime ago” when we talk in her office, shelves loaded with all kinds of Wonder Woman toys, but she remains as bright, breezy and enthusiastic as she was when we last met more than a year ago. From the clips TF just witnessed, Jenkins has every reason to be feeling confident. Perhaps most striking of all was the easy rapport between Gadot and Pine, their sparky banter fizzing with a screwball energy. “It’s definitely got that, and they sort of brought that themselves,” smiles Jenkins. “It’s definitely got the awkwardness and the tension between them.”
The footage also showcases the balance between the fully fantastical world of Themyscira, where audiences will spend the first act, and the grimy streets of early 20th Century London, where Diana and Steve’s fish-out-of-water roles will be reversed. “We worked hard at that – at bridging the tone and making it one story,” confirms Jenkins. “That was the thing I was the most worried about – making Themyscira look like a real place and great, and then bridging total fantasy with the total reality of World War 1, and making it one thing.” With the potential to please huge crowds (Jenkins namechecks Superman ’78, Indiana Jones and Casablanca as inspirations), Wonder Woman could prove to be a gamechanger, a rallying figure for female superhero movies.
After all, she does have the coolest music. “Oh my God, I was shaking, I had a seizure,” laughs Gadot, remembering the first time she heard her signature guitar-squall. “I was like: ‘Oh my God, it’s the best score a film could ever ever have!’ Hans Zimmer is a genius… obviously, he loves that character. He gave her so much respect and attitude with that music… And I love, love, capital letters LOVE it!”