Rumor: 'Wonder Woman' Director Shortlist Includes Kathryn Bigelow, Catherine Hardwicke and More

So that didn't take long. Shortly after reports began to circulate that Warner Bros. was looking to bring a female director on to helm their upcoming Wonder Woman movie, which will star Gal Gadot and arrive in 2017 as part of a huge DC Comics lineup, Forbes has already gotten on the ball and revealed the list of apparent candidates. Mostly it's names that one would expect to find, but there are a couple of surprises.

The list of possibilities includes Kathryn Bigelow Catherine Hardwicke, Julie Taymor, Mimi Leder, Karyn Kusama, Michelle MacLaren, and Tricia Brock. Obviously, Bigelow would be the big score here, but the Zero Dark Thirty and The Hurt Locker director is probably the least likely to want to do something like this. Hardwicke has franchise experience with Twilight, and many of her movies (Thirteen, Red Riding Hood) have been from the female perspective. She may be the most logical choice. Kusama has had a rough go of it since breaking through with Girlfight in 2000, a film that introduced the world to Michelle Rodriguez. She hasn't directed a feature since Jennifer's Body in 2009, and she also helmed the big-budget stinker, Aeon Flux. Leder also hasn't directed a major film in awhile, but the Deep Impact filmmaker certainly knows the terrain. Taymor may not seem like an obvious pick but the gorgeous visuals she was able to bring to Across the Universe and The Tempest may be what got WB's attention. MacLaren has directed episodes of The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones, both shows serving as solid launching pads for others; and Brock is best known for her work on Person of Interest.

My gut tells me WB will go with an established name, which could mean Hardwicke will be the choice. Or perhaps there are others out there we still don't know about? Wonder Woman opens June 23rd 2017.

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Kevin Tancharoen Directs 'The Guns of Christmas Past', Yaron Zilberman Adapts 'Sonata', and More

* Kevin Tancharoen's big claim to fame was in 2010 when he directed the awesome short film, Mortal Kombat: Rebirth, which led to the hit web series Mortal Kombat: Legacy. But he's also directed some features including the Glee 3D concert movie and that terrible Fame remake from 2009. Remember that? Anyway, he's heading back to the big screen with a project that sounds kind of awesome. He'll direct The Guns of Christmas Past, which you might have figured is based very loosely on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. The script by Andrew Hilton centers on a hitman on a mission to avenge a dead friend, but must defeat adversaries from his past, present, and future to do it.

* So things didn't quite work out for the last adaptation of an Orson Scott Card book with Ender's Game barely breaking even at the box office. But maybe the next time will work out better as Yaron Zilberman is set to adapt and direct Card's short story, Unaccompanied Sonata. Zilberman last directed the surprisingly good musical drama, A Late Quartet (review of that here if you missed it), and this film too will have a musical angle to it. Retitled simply Sonata, the film centers on a musical prodigy who is raised in isolation to prevent any outside influences on his compositions. Later in life he discovers the works of Bach, only to be caught by a "watcher" and forbidden from ever making music again. Sounds kind of creepy.

* Karyn Kusama has basically struck out on two her three major directorial efforts. Girlfight put her and Michelle Rodriguez on the map, but when she went big with Aeon Flux and Jennifer's Body things didn't turn out so well. Her next film sounds much smaller and perhaps more in her wheelhouse. Kusama has completed production on The Invitation, which stars Logan Marshall-Green (Prometheus), Emayatzy Corinealdi (Middle of Nowhere), Michiel Huisman (Game of Thrones), Tammy Blanchard (Moneyball), Lindsay Burdge, and John Carroll Lynch. The script by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi (Ride Along) centers on "Will, a haunted man attending a dinner party at the house he once called home who becomes gripped with paranoia that his ex-wife and her new husband are harboring an insidious agenda." [Deadline]

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Zachary Quinto, Luke Wilson, and Topher Grace to star in Karyn Kusama's 'The Invitation'

Karyn Kusama's directorial career got off to a heck of a start with the boxing drama, Girlfight, and with that film's acclaim she also brought Michelle Rodriguez into the spotlight. Thanks for that, really. I love Michelle Rodriguez. Unfortunately, the two have gone in totally different directions ever since. We can argue about Rodriguez playing the same role all the time, but she does it well. Kusama....well, she has Aeon Flux and Jennifer's Body to her credit.


Her next film doesn't sound so hot, either, and I see a straight-to-DVD release in its future. Luke Wilson, Zachary Quinto, Johnny Galecki, and Topher Grace are set to star in The Invitation, some sort of supernatural horror. Wilson will play a guy who stupidly attends a dinner party for his ex-wife(who does that??), and over the course of the night figures out that something insidious has taken hold of his wife and her friends, with everyone there having a secret, horrifying agenda. The script comes courtesy of Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, who we can also hold partially responsible for the crapola that was Aeon Flux.

Quinto makes for an intriguing member of this bunch, and I feel like he's beyond this sort of stuff. Wilson has never lived up to the promise of his early career and likely never will. You know something's wrong when he couldn't even find his way into Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom. I've met and had a great time talking to Topher Grace, but he makes terrible movies. We'll see just how bad this turns out to be when production kicks off this summer.

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