The Wonder Woman Movie May Have a Female Director — Here's Why Michelle MacLaren Is a Great Choice
MacLaren with her statuette at the 2014 International 3D and Advanced Imaging Society’s Creative Arts Awards, on January 28, 2014
Yesterday, Variety revealed that Michelle MacLaren is in talks to direct the Wonder Woman movie. This is exciting news for a couple reasons. First, because there are very few women directors represented among Hollywood’s major franchises, none of whom have ever directed a Marvel or DC superhero movie. (Monster director Patty Jenkins was initially hired to direct Thor: The Dark World, but was replaced by Alan Taylor.) The second (and more important) reason to get excited about MacLaren is that she’s one of the best directors around. And whether you realize it or not, you’re probably familiar with her work.
Since 2009, MacLaren has been directing some of the most memorable episodes of several acclaimed cable dramas, mainly AMC’s Breaking Bad, where she served as an executive producer. She has also helmed multiple installments of The Walking Dead and HBO’s Game of Thrones, which helped cement her reputation as a director who could tackle brutal, challenging scenes in innovative ways.
It’s man vs. bear in a memorable MacLaren-directed scene from Game of Thrones
The iconic moments she created on these shows include Breaking Bad’s horrifying prison-death montage; the bear-fight scene (above) and the Craster’s Keep battle from Game of Thrones; and the nail-biting standoff in one of Breaking Bad’s final episodes, “To’hajiilee.” She has yet to direct a feature film — but as noted by NPR’s Linda Holmes, many of today’s top tentpole directors, including Joss Whedon and J.J. Abrams, made their name in television before helming a franchise.
Wonder Woman has a tentative release date of June 23, 2017 and will presumably star Gal Gadot, who makes her screen debut as Wonder Woman in 2016’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Warner Brothers has not commented on the Variety report about MacLaren, but our fingers — like Wonder Woman’s bracelets — are crossed.
Photo: Warner Bros., GIF from TheBigLead.com, AP
