Wonder Woman Pilot
Most of you have probably already heard that NBC has ordered a pilot for a Wonder Woman series. I'd like to say that I never know what to expect with this kind of thing. But the truth is we always know what to expect. In fact, modern adaptations of comic book properties inevitably follow one simple rule:
Stray as far from the source material as possible.
Apparently this new "Wonder Woman" is a corporate executive in Los Angeles. Of course she is. Does anyone remember the short lived Birds of Prey? television series? Of course not. It was terrible. And it was terrible in large part because it strayed heavily from the source material.
Why do people in TV do this sort of thing? It's as though they don't understand basic things like cause and effect. If something survives for sixty or seventy years with certain core elements intact it must be because those core elements are unappealing to the masses. Right? Right?
Maybe this TV Wonder Woman will be good. I'd love for that to be see. It would be pretty amazing to see a modern Wonder Woman on the small screen. But even it if it is good, I'm not sure it will be Wonder Woman.
Labels: TV, Wonder Woman
posted by Diamondrock @ 9:59 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
I am constantly amazed by this very phenomenom. We've all seen movies where the only think that it has in common with the book that it is supposedly based upon is the title.
It's as though in Hollywood, they can't seem to come up with new concepts, so they use books or comics or whatever...but are then simply unable to refrain from tinkering.
So on the one hand I am thrilled that there is going to be a Wonder Woman show. On the other hand, I am terribly apprehensive.
The problem (as I see it) is that the Hollywood types always feel that they have to "put their own unique stamp on the project."
And that's fine; that's what generations of writers and artists have done with these comic book characters since they were first created.
But there's a difference between putting your stamp on something and taking it completely away from the core concept. Even JMS's Wonder Woman -- pretty far afield from the original concept -- still has connections to the source material.
Halle Berry in Catwoman and my aforementioned Birds of Prey, however, don't have much of anything beyond the names to tie them to the original concepts. Let's hope this Wonder Woman does better.
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