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It had a great, promotable brand, top female superhero, Wonder Woman, experienced TV creator behind it, David E. Kelley, and an appealing star, Adrianne Palicki. So why didn’t the Wonder Woman pilot go to series? We’ll probably need Wonder Woman’s Lasso of Truth to find out what NBC’s executives really thought of the pilot and why exactly they decided not to go with it, but here are some potential reasons.
Despite some negative early speculation, the pilot was not a disaster as some suggested. People who have seen it describe it as “ambitious” and “well crafted”. But its screenings and testing were very mixed. “The audience couldn’t buy into the modernization,” one insider said. There were early signs of resistance against updating the classic franchise and the character when fans slammed the superhero’s new, contemporary costume. “It was a conceptual thing,” another insider said. “Do we need a comic book hero?” While superheroes they have done gangbusters on the big screen, there haven’t been successful recent comic book-based TV series except for the teen angst-filled Smallville, which was not a straight adaptation of the Superman comics but rather an original prequel. Maybe that’s why there was ambivalence in the marketplace when Kelley’s Wonder Woman spec was first taken out in early January. There were no takers until Bob Greenblatt started at NBC and picked it up to pilot, along with another Warner Bros. TV drama, Michael Patrick King’s A Mann’s World, while passing on two high-profile WBTV projects set up at NBC by the previous regime, the J.J. Abrams-produced Odd Jobs starring Michael Emerson and Terry O’Quinn and Josh Schwartz’s Ghost Angeles with Rachel Bilson.
The question is whether the demise of Wonder Woman will give ABC a pause in their push to get on the air a superhero series from corporate sibling Marvel. The network has two high-profile comic-book shows in the works: Hulk with Guillermo del Toro and David Eick and AKA Jessica Jones with Melissa Rosenberg.
One things is for sure: With Smallville ending its 10-season run, Fox canceling Human Target and NBC passing on Wonder Woman, there will be no comic book-based series on broadcast TV for the first time in a decade.
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
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I’m surprised that this pilot isn’t being shopped around elsewhere or not even a mention of an iTunes download.
The fan base is there for a one time viewing.
It does deserve a one time viewing for the comic book fans out there. I would see it.
We all saw it coming. The last thing they want is another Knight Rider or V that is no where near as cool, epic or action packed as the originals that came out decades ago. I was completely open to those remakes, but they couldn’t even up the scale on Visual Fx and action set pieces and it’s been decades. NOW THAT IS PATHETIC!!!!
Where has David E. Kelley been since Batman 89 came out 22 YEARS AGO!!!! When Tim Burton was the first to make a Super-Hero not campy looking. Then Schumacher brought it all back to campy.
As THOUSANDS have said, her costume looks like a cheap halloween costume. I like David E. Kelly and he’s legend. But, he brought the failure and wasted time on this show all on his own. He’s completely unware of what millions of people in the U.S. know, that we don’t want campy looking super-heroes that belong in the 70′s.
DC is not as aggressive as Marvel in getting there superheroes to the big screen. So, I hope that we finally get a Wonder Woman in theaters where she belongs. With a thong like in some of the comics, however that’s wishful thinking.
WHAT PISSES ME OFF THE MOST IS THAT THERE STILL ARE STILL PRODUCERS IN HOLLYWOOD WHO DON’T HAVE A CLUE ABOUT COMIC BOOKS. COMICS ARE NOT AS HARD TO READ AS BOOKS, WALK INTO A COMIC BOOKS STORE AND ASK OPINIONS OF THE NERDS. Seriously, it’s 2011 WITH SEVERAL COMIC BOOK MOVIES THAT HAVE ALREADY MADE BILLIONS and there still are clueless people in Hollywood. Keep in mind that we would not have had the hits of Iron-Man or Thor if Marvel had not produced them themselves. Since there are still dumb studio heads who didn’t “get it” after Batman 89, X-Men, Spider-Man and etc etc etc etc that comic book movies make money. Thank God for Marvel Studios!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The only reason they even greenlit a Ghost Rider sequel is because the rights were about to revert back to Marvel. Pathetic, if you own the rights to any Marvel Characters than you are sitting on a gold mind. Green light them you morons and make sure you pay respect to the source material, like Marvel has.
As for David E. Kelley, his agent and manager should be fired for not smacking him in the face for losing his damned mind. Just saying WHAT THE ENTIRE COUNTRY ALREADY KNOWS.
Wait…are you saying that there is a dearth of comic book based films?
So, I hope that we finally get a Wonder Woman in theaters where she belongs. With a thong like in some of the comics, however that’s wishful thinking
VERY wishful thinking, since WW has never worn a thong in the comics.
She does… perhaps you need to read some more WW comics.
This show had millions of fans around the globe before. Although it was called XENA.
Xena looked a lot better than this mess. The designer made a bad decision in changing her costume. Wonder Woman should look like Wonder Woman not one of the People of Walmart website.
THEY DID NOT USE THE COSTUME PICTURED IN THE ARTICLE!!!!!!!!!! They changed it to look more like the Linda Carter Costume, the difference being she still had pants, but the pants looks like pants version of the old shorts.
DONT BASH A COSTUME THEY DID NOT USE IN THE PILOT!!!!
I have seen the pilot episode. Although there was some room for improvement, it certainly had possibilities. The casting was great, the aciton scenes were great and the producers even bowed down to the public and put WW in the old hot pants near the end of the episode. It was promising and hopefully some other network will take another look at this show. P.S Adrianne looks AMAZING and works the role well!
Actually, it’s because Wonder Woman is just not cool…
No guy wants to watch a girl kick ass– and neither do the ladies. So who’s the audience?
Underworld, Resident Evil, Hanna and Sigourney Weaver all say you are wrong about girls kicking ass.
But yes, Wonder Woman is not cool. Nothing about it looked cool. One lame show does not represent every superhero project out there. Hulk would be great TV.
V
Underworld/Resident Evil wouldn’t last on network TV.
But they are a staple for 13 yr old boy masturbation fantasies.
Pretty sure that’s what the Linda Carter Wonder Woman was as well.
The thing is, that woman, in that outfit looks stupid running down a modern-day street with cars and pedestrians. It looks like a singing telegram stripper who’s running because she’s late for the birthday party.
Comic books are ridiculous. The stuff in them looks stupid if you just think you can film what’s drawn.
The best comic-book movies either craft the look of their hero to fit the world, or craft a world where their characters fit.
It can be done. It’s just hard.
Well, this new costume looks out of place, as you say, just like a stripper or bad costume party. Last two Batman movies showed how you make superhero (and villains) look like they belong to the world they inhabit, they look believable.
I remember costumes used in David E. Kelly’s great Boston Legal and episode with the Halloween, costumes there look better than new WW. While David is most to blame, I am sure that studio had a lot to say in the design process, and as usual, studios are mainly clueless when it comes to superheros or SciFi in general and they managed to mess quite a lot TV series because of that.
But, I would still love to see someone else (not David anymore) take a new approach to WW and a studio that will leave them alone to create a good show. Not likely to happen, but you never know.
HULK will NOT be cool… Wonder Woman can’t survive in the comic marketplace, and DC continues to publish the book every so often or commission this hackneyed pilot, because DC will lose the right to Wonder Woman.
It’s known that men and women are interested in hot chicks doling out beatdowns, just look at NIKITA (which is also frustrating)… the costume is what killed Wonder Woman… even in the X-Men movies they opted to go with more toned down, black/navy blue uniforms… and while it might be interesting to see a Wonder Woman in the traditional costume; it’s kitsch. They’ve been playing around with her costume in the comics over the last 25 years and never make it daring and brass and sexy and powerful and dangerous…
But NBC has NO idea how to do comic book fiction – HEROES, THE CAPE are Exhibit A.
Buffy, Dark Angel, La Femme Nakita (new and old), Sarah Conner Chronicles……..each had a base, some stronger than others
Wonder Woman can’t work outside of comic books….her proportions are more unrealistic than a barbie doll while fighting crime in a super short skirt and ultra low cut top….
nice try but just really can’t be done….real origins are masturbation material – she is 100% submissive when bracelets are crossed…….really?…..like someone else said the closest you can get to Wonder Woman in live action is Xena…….maybe Red Sonja
oh and costume did look cheap
hey Abe…your comment about Wonder Woman becoming submissive when her bracelets are crossed is absolutely false. In the first volume of WW (1941-1986) she lost her powers if her bracelets were bound or chained by a man. From 1986 to the present time her powers became more formidable (in the league of Superman) and she gained the power of flight and no longer had the weakness of having her bracelets were bound. Also, the crossing of the bracelets was a sign of sisterhood. With all due respect to your comment this is really one of the reasons why Wonder Woman has such a hard time getting mass exposure. Most of the people that are attempting to bring her to either tv or the big screen simply do not know who the character is or what she stands for. She is more than a superhero…in the DCU she is an ambassador of peace from Themiscyra and has no secret identity (as she did in the first volume of her series) and since she is an Amazon by birthright she is a warrior…she just happens to kick butt right along Superman and Batman
Uh, what? There are plenty of kick-ass women on TV. You know what, I’m gonna assume that was sarcasm, and not an actual statement of supposed fact.
What year are you posting from? Have you never heard of Angelina Jolie?
Actually you just proved the point.
When was the last time you watched Tomb Raider?
I think they were referring to SALT which did great business worldwide. And she also kicked ass in WANTED. Another huge box office. But the point was being made about women kicking ass on TV. You know, like Dark Angel or Alias. Nobody wants to see that. Or the gun toting chick on Burn Notice. Or…
or NIKITA or Starbuck in the latest BSG or Buffy…
..In Plain Sight..
Just watched “Salt” last night. She kicked some serious ass.
Buffy?
@FNL “No guy wants to watch a girl kick ass– and neither do the ladies. So who’s the audience?”
LOL. What television and movie world do you live in?
Yeah, that’s why Buffy only ran seven seasons…
Buffy and Alias say hi from TV land. One could reach all the way back to Charlie’s Angels and the original Wonder Woman, but most of us weren’t around for those and that was camp. Point is saying, “there is no audience” for girls in action films/shows is ridiculous. On film there is a slew of bad franchises centered around that concept (Underworld, Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, etc.) not to mention classics like the Alien films and the original Terminator movies. Just last year saw Salt and Kick-Ass (with a 10-year-old) become hits on theater and/or DVD and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo remake is one of the most anticipated movies of 2011. Sorry the market is there. This show just looked bad and NBC saved themselves another embarrassment after The Cape’s short run.
not to mention GET CHRISTIE LOVE and POLICE WOMAN.
ALIAS and BUFFYboth showed that girls kicking ass IS something a general audience will watch. BUT…you’re absolutely right about WW NOT being cool. She is and has always been a cheesy comic character. imo.
I agree, this show was never going to take off. Not because audiences don’t care for female heroes, that’s been proven false especially on TV, but by the supreme cheesiness of this particular concept and costume.
What are you talking about…Hit Girl was the best part of Kick Ass!
I’dwat a hot girl kicking ass and taking numbers any day of the week but I also prefer a story have plot and character worth more than just a dash of cheesecake. My complaint with the costume was how far it deviates from its source in that pants on Wonder Woman look stupid. The current Dweebs writing the revised comic book have not figured that much out, so how awful musgt be the rest of their pathetic reboot? I have long argued that the one and only central thing that neds chaging in Wonderwoman is to remove the stupid “Clay Golem” origin story and to make her officially the daughter of Herakles, which would explain her being more powerful than any of her Amazon sisters. I proposed that to Gerge Perez in 1989 and he nixed it because he did not want to make her a Goddess.” DOH!!! And then he made her a Goddess anyway, after giving her a vapid character and colorless dialogue with a nonsense origin story that took her even further away from her World War Two Origins. That made the bok a creative disaster, even if it was financially successful. Go back and retell the story RIGHT, and give her a film length origin worthy of an epic! Don’t let the concept die simply because NBC has yet to figure out that Camp does not sell and the key to a good Comic Book story is to treat it like it’s not a “comic book” but an act of literature. All successful Comic Book titles treat the characters and concept as something serious, even plausably human!
I’m curious how it played out with passing on two top creatives in favor of a known franchise- reeks of spite for the previous regime. I also find it hard to believe Odd Jobs wouldn’t be a winner, and Bilson has more charm than anyone in the entire Peacock fold. NBC is a cursed network.
>> No guy wants to watch a girl kick ass– and neither do the ladies.>>
Guy here, raising hand. Likes to watch girls kick ass just fine.
I don’t seem to be remotely alone, either.
Maybe it’s because David E. Kelly doesn’t know anything about superheroes and the costume was disastrous. They didn’t know the costume was terrible until the internet reacted negatively. Anyone who approved that costume and shot that costume without realizing they were making a serious mistake should really consider a new career.
Uh tells the truth here. I would only add that the world post 9/11 has problems with traditional superheroes of a pre-terror environment. Iron Man works, Wonder Woman is trite and its themes are unrealistic. Batman may continue for another picture or two, but Superman will flop and Spiderman is in real limbo. If those franchises continue, it will be because they’ve pulverized their audiences with spectacle, something television can’t do. It’s a character medium and in this case, there’s little that’s modern about Wonder Woman.
You never read the comics, because if you did, there was an entire era not too long ago where WW was an ambassador of a foreign nation, activist, and treated like a celebrity. The writer brought a “Real world” aesthetic to the series. WW was always intended to be a character that had an activist nature and sought out to help people. Not to mention a number of her villains were in a way terrorists and radicals/extremists. She could work in this environment.
Dingdingdingdingding! To put the elevator-pitch spin on this, one could easily have developed a Wonder Woman series blending aspects of West Wing with aspects of 24 — part character drama, part action, both filtered through the framework of current events, all drawn from that part of the comic-book continuity. (Indeed, many of the more recent animated incarnations of Wonder Woman at least touch on these aspects of the character.)
Not only doesn’t David E Kelley not know anything about superheroes but the script was just BAD. Atrociously written, with a bizarro set-up. The script didn’t work so it’s no wonder the pilot didn’t work either.
Kring wasn’t a comic aficionado, and that’s one of the reasons why HEROES with all its promised turned into one of the biggest disappointments in recent memory.
So DEK is probably cut from the same cloth as Kring and Ang Lee, avowed dismissers of comics, their story dynamics and lore… hence the awful final results.
It’s inherent that Suits were NEVER comic fans growing up, and they’re too lazy to read maybe 3 or 4 years worth of a series to “get it” and know where to find all the stories.
Speaking of abc, where is the intel on their pickups??
Well, I know that is just not true that nobody wants to see a girl/women kick ass. We have had lot’s of them from Buffy, XENA, Smallville, Human Target etc. It is not that we don’t want to see it except networks just can’t do it right. The network knew pissing off the hardcore fans is the wrong thing to do and they closed up shop instead of seeing what fans wanted and see if it could be changed.
The costume is wrong when they did blue shoes instead of red etc.
Wonder Woman doesnt wear pants… she has kind a onesie going on… and her boots should be red. also… those heels make it impossible to have her run in an imposing fashion. Did no one see the photos of her falling while trying to run?
Olivia Munn looked better as wonder woman when she wore the costume for her book the she *ahem* someone else *ahem* wrote.
Actually, they did change the boots to red once shooting started. And just like in the 1970s series, it looked like they used flats for all the running scenes. As for the pants, I actually didn’t mind them. It works in the comic books, and in the older show, but I don’t think it would look right now if we saw her running around in a bikini bottom. I guess we’ll never know, unless the pilot leaks somewhere down the line.
The costume isn’t contemporary, it’s way too classical. They needed to go the way of X-Men, Batman, revamp it, take away the bodice and the colors. Bad bad bad.
Exactly. For a while in the 90s they had a new Wonder Woman and put Diana Prince in Navy blues and a jacket. That would look far, far better on TV.
Yes, take away the color. Let’s turn every super hero into a dark, brooding messed up psycho. No thanks!
God knows that we have no shortage of messed upbrooding psychos. What was needed with Wonder Woman was an optimistic frame of mind that had the bold and daring idea to make her both a representative of ancient Greek Culture, thje Gods and (GASP-SHUDDER) Human! Y’know, like a natural woman who just happens to have Godly abilities? That kind of thing…?
Jim.
Ari and WME couldn’t get David Kelley’s Wonder Woman done? CAA failed Michael Patrick King? Shockers.
“One things is for sure: With Smallville ending its 10-season run, Fox canceling Human Target and NBC passing on Wonder Woman, there will be no comic book-based series on TV for the first time in a decade.”
The Walking Dead on AMC is based off comics.
As is Powers, coming to FX. They meant to say Network TV, I guess.
I wondered about this too, and then reread the line — she says broadcast TV, which is correct when one uses “broadcast” as shorthand for “over-the-air” as opposed to cable/satellite.
actually, the quote was “broadcast tv” – i believe the implication was “network” tv, not cable.
had a feeling the audience would have trouble buying into a modernized Wonder Woman. The costume gave us a clue as to how bad it was.
I believe The Walking Dead is the only comic based series left on the air.
Viewers/fans of Alias, Buffy, Aliens and numerous other female centric action franchises disagree with you.
I doubt this has anything to do with The Hulk getting on the air.Disney is eager to “exploit” their Marvel licenses, and since ABC and Marvel are in the same family, it’s basically a lock.
Also, Wonder Woman was developed by David E. Kelley, someone who has no experience with superhero or genre fiction.The Hulk(last I heard) is being developed by Guillermo Del Toro and Battlestar Galactica producer, David Eick.Jessica Jones is being developed by Melissa Rosenberg, who wrote the screenplays for the Twilight films and worked on Dexter.She was also recently hired to write The Highlander script.
So, those are very different situations.
And while you’re correct that there will be no superhero series on TV, The Walking Dead is based on a comic book and it will still be on the air.And hopefully, FX picks up Powers.
Could it be the directing wasn’t very good????
Usually I’m a big fan of Nellie’s coverage but this time I feel like she’s being spun. This was a bad pilot that suffered from poor execution on multiple levels. Bad pilots happen all the time, it’s not a big deal. There’s no reason anyone has to answer for “Wonder Woman” any more than they have to answer for “Rockford Files”.
My guess is female viewers would like to identify with a superhero that doesn’t dress like a stripper whore. This show was finished the day that shameful costume was unveiled. If the creators decided to make a show that wasn’t for guys to jerk off to, then maybe they would have had a chance.
Now there’s a catchy name for a female superhero:
StripperWhore
Ssssh… Mark Millar might hear you and create one. Damn! There he goes…
Actually, Garth Ennis did a one-shot comic about a hooker turned hero; It was called “The Pro”
Stripperlla, it’s ben done.
Jim.
I don’t think moving forward or not with the Hulk should be impacted by Wonder Woman. They made a choice to take Wonder Woman in a direction that didn’t work. Batman, Superman and Spiderman have all been updated recently with a serious tone. If ABC wants the Hulk to work you have to start there. Cheesy cornball 70s superhero stuff won’t work in 2011. Anybody who watched the original isn’t in the demo anyway so why stay true to the original 70s version. Missed opportunity in my opinion to do this the right way.
This probably would have been terrible for any period. What made Bob Greenblatt pick this up to pilot in the 1st place? Was it the financial penalties? I heard that NBC had financial penalties with Warner Bros. negotiated under the previous regime at NBC.
Unless they changed the script drastically from the one that was going around the web a bit ago, it wasn’t a good concept. Nobody wants to see Wonder Woman turned into a split personality version of Ally McBeal; it alienated fans of the comics and was never going to interest casual viewers. It was a stupid idea that failed as it should have.
Bob Greenblat is a moron. I’m surprised he didnt cast Leann Rhimes in yhe role & pick up that garbage too.
I love David E Kelley as a writer usually.
BUT, WHAT THE HELL WAS DAVID E KELLEY THINKING??? THIS IS LIKE THE SUPERMAN III VERSION OF A WONDER WOMAN SCRIPT AND THAT’S NOT A COMPLIMENT!!!
If ABC passes on Hulk from Marvel which they owned and paid a ton of money for you can bet it is not very good and Wonder Woman will have nothing to do with the decision. If the pilot is not acceptable maybe they bury it and try to re-introduce it way down the road again as a movie franchise?Bet it makes it on the air. Lots at stake in that deal. More contemporary concept anway.
That article sucked. For an article titled “Why ‘Wonder Woman’ Didn’t Go And What That Means For ABC’s ‘Hulk’” you woul think it would have some analysis of why the series didn’t get picked up. After reading it twice I still don’t know. All I know is that the pilot “wasn’t a disaster”…which is good? bad? I have no idea.
If you don’t have something to say, next time just don’t say anything at all.