supergirl

Even though Kathryn Bigelow’s gritty war film ‘The Hurt Locker’ won six Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director, Hollywood has long been under the impression that female directors can only craft romantic comedies.  But Patty Jenkins’ handling of superhero epic ‘Wonder Woman’ may have driven home the fact that women might be able to accomplish more on the big screen than derivative meet-cutes.  Warner Brothers wants to stick with the gold that Jenkins’ struck and with the just announced ‘Supergirl’ movie, the studio is seeking another female director to bring the Girl of Steel to life for the masses.

She would not only join Jenkins, but Cathy Yan, who is set to helm female team-up movie ‘Birds of Prey’.  Reportedly, WB also wants a female director for its ‘Batgirl’ movie.  Both ‘Birds of Prey’ and ‘Batgirl’ were scripted by Christina Hodson.  African American woman, Ava DuVernay is currently preparing to direct ‘New Gods’ for Warner Brothers, which will actually not likely feature a largely black or female cast.

Times are changing for Hollywood and more and more women, people of different races and nationalities and members of the LGBTQ community are in demand to bring heroes to life and to bring their own life experiences to the table.  African American Ryan Coogler directed the highest-grossing Marvel superhero movie, ‘Black Panther’ with an almost all-black cast.  Anna Boden is currently co-directing ‘Captain Marvel’, with Ryan Fleck, which will be the first Marvel movie with a solo female headliner.  And Cate Shortland is officially attached to helm a solo ‘Black Widow’ film.

A week ago, it was revealed that WB had enlisted Oren Uziel to pen a script for a ‘Supergirl’ movie.  Uziel (who is male) has previously provided the screenplays for ’22 Jump Street’, ‘Shimmer Lake’, ‘The Cloverfield Paradox’ and the in-production ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’.  He has also written a few ‘Mortal Kombat’ adaptations and is slated to pen the script for a new theatrical film.

In 1984, a male director, Jeannot Szwarc directed the first ‘Supergirl’ cinematic movie, with a script by David Odell.  Helen Slater starred as the title hero and has appeared on the current CW ‘Supergirl’ series playing the adoptive mother of the new SG, Melissa Benoist.  Unfortunately, largely due to budgetary reasons, the 1984 movie was not a success.

So far, ‘Wonder Woman’ has been WB’s only DC slam dunk– a hit with not just critics but fans.  It’s not surprising that they are mining the DC archives for more female action heroes to bring to the silver screen.

What do you think of a ‘Supergirl’ movie?  Any directors you’d like to see tackle this project?

Source: Screen Rant