Hello Amazon fans! I hope you like the attached script review...if
only it could make to into production! I love the fact that Artemis
makes a cameo. Sorry if this has been posted before!
Brian

WONDER WOMAN
Screenplay by Matthew Jennison and Brent Strickland
Story by Matthew Jennison, Brent Strickland and Kevin Shawley
Based on the DC Comics characters created by William Moulton Marston
130 pages


OYE MIRA!

EL MAGNIFICO MOFACKIN' MAYIMBE HERE!

Welcome to our Super Bowl Edition Superhero Spec Spotlight! The last
time we did one of these was on Batman Begins.

But first about that J.J. Star Trek thing…

After all, I said it is just a rumor, but folks, as Public Enemy sang
famously back in the days – DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE! That rumor is
picking up steam in the business community here in Hollywood – hence
why I reported it to Ronnie Adams. There is something really fishy
going on over there on Melrose.

The trades say one thing, then the next day something else happens.

Case in point – WONDER WOMAN!

Warner Bros. buys this excellent spec script (which we will preview
for you shortly) and says something along the lines of committing to
Whedon's contemporary version, then the very next day Whedon is off
the project!

Just like I suspected. Why would you take a spec off the market when
you own the rights already? I never bought this protection from
liability jibberish that the trades were spoon-feeding us.

See why you can never trust the trades! See la comemierderia!

My goodness it is Black Superhero Friday or what? First Whedon is off
Wonder Woman, and now David Goyer is off The Flash!

Que carajo is going on over there in Burbank?

Anyway, in regards to Wonder Woman – the spec that Silver picked up
ROCKS!
A fun filled adventure packed girl power action movie in the 1940s!

1943 to be exact. Just where this character belongs.

Now I know ya'll are not here to hear my rants in colloquial
Spanglish so let's get to it and preview the first act.

We open with QUEEN HIPPOLYTE and her THREE THOUSAND AMAZON WARRIORS
all clad in battle armor and bracelets.

We pull back even further and FIFTY THOUSAND MEN, all armed for war,
advance on the Amazon.

In VOICEOVER HIPPOLYTE tells us that they were created to guard
against the evils of the world. Strong, wise, and compassionate, Hera
gave breath to the AMAZON. In the ancient days, they lived among
Mankind…but Man fears what it cannot control. Man sought to take the
power of the Amazon but doing so would have destroyed Man's World.

Hippolyte erupts in a battle cry and the Amazon charge forward,
meeting the army of man head on.

The action is fierce. The Amazon are superior warriors, but the
numbers of Man's army are too great and the Amazon take heavy
casualties.

Hippolyte further tell us that to protect the world from such
devastation they would do anything. Even flee.

We next see Hippolyte leading twenty Amazon ships into the open
ocean. An Armada is in hot pursuit. She further tells us that they
sailed forth without a destination, guided only by their faith.

Hera heard her prayers.

Hippolyte steers her ships toward a Heavenly star and the Amazon make
it past the storm, which engulfs man's ships towards – THEMYSCIRA.
Hippolyte finishes her voiceover by telling us that Themyscira has
been The Amazon's home for three thousand years, a place where they
could live in peace, hidden from the world of man.

After the credit sequence over a montage of military imagery showing
the history of mankind's warfare growing even deadlier, we open in
1943 Germany and meet

STEVE TREVOR (30)

A tall, handsome son of a senator but made it on his own American in
a Nazi SS disguise, snaps photos of Nazi Jet blueprints that look
incredibly advanced for the 1940s.
The words "AMERIKA BOMBER" and FLEISCHER GESELLSCHAFT" appear on the
bottom of each design. Steve discovers that the Nazis are going to
bomb Washington D.C. and New York.

Steve's cover is blown and gets chased by the Nazis. He makes it to
the Nazi hangar and steals a Nazi jet, which looks more like a
stealth bomber than a WWII era plane. It's the Amerika Bomber from
the blueprints.

He navigates it out of there as the Nazis open fire on the jet. He
flies over the Ocean and is leaking fuel. He makes it through the
clouds and head towards a tropical island.

THEMYSCIRA.

A majestic city hugs the coastline and stretches up into the
mountains. Its architecture is a mix of Greek Temples and Elaborate
Towers standing watch over the gleaming streets.

A huge coliseum stands in the center of the city, its rim decorated
with statues of the Grecian gods.

We descend into a long street-level tunnel that empties into the
arena floor. At the end of the tunnel we see the silhouette of a
young woman – DIANA.

She takes a deep breath and places a helmet overhead obscuring her
face before we see it. She enters the coliseum and wears a black
skirt of leather strips and a GOLDEN BREASTPLATE with the form of an
eagle, wings spread. Her bodice and leather boots are both DARK RED.

Thousands of Amazons in colorful robes fill the stands. A cheer rises
as the red Amazon warrior moves to the center of the ring, where
another masked Amazon waits, and this one in dark green – she is
PHILLIPUS.

Four challengers remain to determine the strongest and best suited to
find their sister, GALINA. Hera's choice will soon be revealed.

We then get some super cool girl on girl gladiator action – DIANA VS
PHILLIPUS.

It is no secret who wins. Then we get WHITE (ARTEMIS) vs BLUE (ODIA).

Artemis wins, then gets disqualified from the final round and doesn't
fight Diana.

Diana, her face still covered, kneels before Hippolyte on the
coliseum floor and has proven herself the greatest warrior of the
Amazon. Now it is her duty to return to Man's world and find Galina.

She removes her helmet and for the first time we see her. She is
barely twenty; she's beautiful, with long black hair and just like
her mother – HIPPOLYTE.
Hippolyte has a fit. She forbade Diana from partaking in the contest.
Hippolyte orders her to go to the palace.

Steve meanwhile crashes into a forested park in Themyscira. Diana
runs into Steve and they meet. Diana saves Steve's life and frees him
the wreckage. Steve then gets arrested by the Amazon. Hippolyte and
her entourage appear on a hover chariot.

Hippolyte takes Diana on the hover chariot. Here we learn that Galina
was sent to Man's world to ensure that Pandora's Box is secure but
she apparently went missing hence the contest for an Amazon warrior
to go find Galina. Phillipus, who Diana beat in the contest, is going
to man's world to find Galina much to the dismay of Diana. Mother and
daughter get into an argument.

Steve is taken to the Senate Hall. Hippolyte puts the GOLDEN ROPE
around Steve and he tells the truth. The Amazon doesn't believe him,
they think man captured Galina and stole the Amazon technology. Steve
is sentenced by the senate to death.

We then find out that the Amazons protect the key – a crystal that
hangs on Hippolyte's neck. If man came into possession of Pandora's
box and the key - it would be catastrophic.

Diana rescues Steve from his cell. She also steals a GOLDEN BELT –
the belt of Aphrodite, which allows an Amazon to walk in disguise
among men. Diana also steals a GOLDEN ROPE – Hestia's Golden Lasso,
which is unbreakable and any whom it binds, must speak the truth.

Diana and Steve make their getaway from Themyscira on you guessed it –
THE INVISBLE JET.

Diana controls the jet with the GOLD TIARA with RUBY STAR on it. It
resembles Hippolyte's crown but is shaped to lie flat across the
forehead.

On page 34 – Steve and Diana race out of Themyscira – cross the first
threshold – and head back to Washington.

End Act 1

Like I said, the script rocks. We of course get Diana repelling Nazi
bullets with her bracelets and she beats the shit out of Nazi bad
guys by the dozens. She has the strength of ten men.

For those fans concerned about her outfit – no worries.

When she finally makes her debut as Wonder Woman on page 86, her
Wonder Woman outfit is a combination of her Amazon battle gear and
the American flag, the costume we all know as Wonder Woman but
slightly more combat ready. SHE LOOKS HOT!
The first part of the 2nd half of Act 2 (the test, allies, and
enemies stage) takes place in Washington and of course Nazi bad guys
(to good effect in this script) and double agents – Threshold
Guardians – keep Steve and Diana busy.

The 2nd part of Act 2 takes place in Berlin as Diana and Steve
intensify their search for Galina.

The 3rd Act and battle royale finale takes place back on Themyscira
as the Amazons and their hover chariots fight a fleet of the Nazi
Amerika Bombers as the main villain, who is revealed late in the game
(which I won't spoil) goes all out for the key on Hippolyte's neck.
The 3rd act is wall-to-wall action.

Overall, a very great read. The writers did their homework. As a
comic book character origin movie - it is just as good as Batman
Begins.

I can see why Silver supposedly took it off the spec market. If I was
a betting man, I figure this is the origin story that Warners might
stick with. My note to the studio is to not touch the script, leave
it intact, get yourself a good director and shoot this script. It is
all there on the page.

Spec Screenwriting 101

My only beef with the script, which could have shaved 10-15 pages off
the thing, is the overuse of CONTINUED at the top and bottom of the
script, which is OFF LIMITS in a spec, and the use of German dialogue
then it's subtitled English counterpart. When you write any language,
either below the character's name, or as in vogue today, next to the
character's name – use a parenthesis (in German, with English
subtitles) then the English dialogue. It is a waste of space and
lines and supremely redundant to include foreign dialogue, which a
reader can't understand anyway only to translate it right after. Damn
noobies. Read David Trottier's books! One of my pet peeves about
specs. I shit you not, I know readers who pass on bad screenplay
format no matter how good the story is.

Anyway, who do you guys pick as Wonder Woman?

My top choice would have to be Rachel McAdams and then Jessica Biel
second.

I think the role of Hippolyte, Diana's mother, is tailor written for
Catherine Zeta Jones.

Check back real soon to see my next spec script spotlight by a very
famous writer/director. He is some guy who heard voices.

Until then, enjoy the game!

In the meantime, I am looking for the following scripts – RUG EATER
by Miguel Arteta, and John Ridley's L.A. RIOTS. You got `em? Email me.

HASTA EL PROXIMO CAPITULO…

…YO SOY EL MAYIMBE!

mayimbe@...