The Flame-Haired Woman of the Shadows
February 22, 2018 7:23 PM   Subscribe

With Joss Whedon not directing Batgirl anymore here's 9 rad women who could take his place.
posted by Artw (25 comments total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
Any one of them, thank you. No more of him, please.
posted by tzikeh at 7:54 PM on February 22, 2018 [7 favorites]


Lexi Alexander presumably following up with Secret Six.
posted by Artw at 7:57 PM on February 22, 2018 [1 favorite]


Whedon was always going to be way out of his depth trying to do Batgirl, since she's a girl without superpowers.
posted by riruro at 8:27 PM on February 22, 2018 [8 favorites]


You may not have read any of his Wonder Woman script then, I’m afraid the powers didn’t help him much.
posted by Artw at 8:33 PM on February 22, 2018 [5 favorites]


I was excited for Whedon to get the job in the first place, now I'm happy that he's bailing.
posted by octothorpe at 8:35 PM on February 22, 2018 [3 favorites]


Between the success of Wonder Woman and, well, some non-successes of Whedon it does seem like a pairing that’s time has passed.
posted by Artw at 8:59 PM on February 22, 2018 [1 favorite]


Joss Whedon with writer’s block? Huh.

[Marge Simpson stepping on sewing machine pedal, accidentally mangling that re-re-re-re-reconstructed pink Chanel suit beyond repair, with Marge’s face replaced with a poorly-cut out photo of Joss Whedon’s, and “Buffy Script” typed over the suit... .gif ]
posted by Sys Rq at 9:25 PM on February 22, 2018 [8 favorites]


I like the part where they say DC fans are clamoring for the Zach Snyder version of Justice League.

Who the hell are those people?
posted by Big Al 8000 at 9:27 PM on February 22, 2018 [7 favorites]


The imaginary, the sarcastic, and the deeply, deeply, deeply misguided.

Which group Sonny Bunch belongs to is anyone’s guess.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:37 PM on February 22, 2018


It'd be great if any of the directors mentioned in the link wanted to make a superhero movie and got a chance to do so, but at the same time I'm still a little irked over the fact that many of these women actually are making movies that get completely ignored since they aren't superhero films.

Telling women's stories shouldn't mean just trying to find some talented director to make the same kind of film people already have grown used to, but seeking out the stories these women are actually trying to tell out of their own sense of what's important and interesting.

Claire Denis, for example, has been making fantastic, critically acclaimed, and singular films since the late '80s, and nuttily enough some of those movies aren't even primarily about women. Go figure a woman can make revealing and powerful movies about men too! I'm all for giving women directors more opportunity to make blockbusters if that's all people want and if that's of interest to the directors, but they are just as able to direct the next Batman as Batwoman so this conversation should be happening for all the movies, not just when studios and the comic industry decide to cash in when they finally see a movement supporting women.

I hope people will start to support more films that don't lean so heavily on a legacy of crappy behavior and sexist storytelling like those enriching Marvel, DC, and the studios that kept women from power as long as they did.
posted by gusottertrout at 10:39 PM on February 22, 2018 [18 favorites]


Some of my favorite tv is directed by women, but not too many people pay attention to who directed this one-off miniseries or that episode of HBO prestige series X.

I don't really have a preference for what women direct, I just want more women directors to get visible work. Women should make movies about whatever they want to make movies about. Little Women remake? Have at it. A feminist character drama? Great. World War II with vampires? Bring it on.

So, yeah, I'd welcome a female director for Batgirl. I'm tired of Whedon's brand of "feminism" and his cookie cutout "strong" female characters anyway.
posted by xyzzy at 3:01 AM on February 23, 2018 [7 favorites]


From the first link...
The Tracking Board elaborated upon this story with the detail that new DC Films chief Walter Hamada, who was appointed to the position just last month, is now planning to fire a female filmmaker for Batgirl.
That has to be a seriously bad typo...

I didn't know there was even a Batgirl movie in the works. Yay!
Joss Whedon leaving the project is nothing but good news. Yay!
posted by Thorzdad at 4:21 AM on February 23, 2018


Big Al 8000: "I like the part where they say DC fans are clamoring for the Zach Snyder version of Justice League.

Who the hell are those people?
"

Fanboys who think that Whedon's half-remake of Justice League is insufficiently bro-ish for their tastes.
posted by octothorpe at 4:35 AM on February 23, 2018 [1 favorite]


Lexi Alexander has repeatedly said she doesn’t want to direct more superhero movies because when they underperform it’s blamed on gender. She’s a tremendously capable director who should be able to pick her own projects, but has spent the past few years directing an occasional episode of popular television shows. Every time a superhero movie comes up, her name is tossed out as a possible director. I’d love to see her name come up instead for Westerns, Regency dramas, teen dance movies, etc.
posted by maxsparber at 4:46 AM on February 23, 2018 [2 favorites]


I want Greta Gerwig on Batgirl. At the very least, I want her to write the script. The tone of her writing is the kind I'd love see for Batgirl -- witty, playful and smart, but also heartfelt.

I am glad Whedon's off this project and I'm glad the trend in superhero movies is moving away from "directors who are good at spectacle" to "directors who have a vision and a voice and are just trying to make the movie they want to make." (I still have yet to see Black Panther, but I think in their own ways, Wonder Woman, Thor: Ragnarok and Logan all are great example of this.)

So yeah, I hope whatever director they get is more focused on "making a good movie that has some superheroes in it" rather than "making a superhero movie that may also be good."
posted by darksong at 5:31 AM on February 23, 2018 [4 favorites]


Roxane Gay has already volunteered to write it.
posted by tofu_crouton at 6:00 AM on February 23, 2018 [11 favorites]


The imaginary, the sarcastic, and the deeply, deeply, deeply misguided. Which group Sonny Bunch belongs to is anyone’s guess.
"This aesthetic vision may have triggered sniggers — aggressively unique artistry often does ... "
Hello, Comic Book Guy!
posted by octobersurprise at 6:30 AM on February 23, 2018 [2 favorites]


Telling women's stories shouldn't mean just trying to find some talented director to make the same kind of film people already have grown used to, but seeking out the stories these women are actually trying to tell out of their own sense of what's important and interesting.

At the same time, the thing about superhero movies is that they are not boy movies. There are huge numbers of women who grew up with superheroes, love superheroes, and want to watch superhero movies, especially with characters like Batgirl and Wonder Woman. We want to see stories about these iconic female superheroes being told by women, because those things are important and interesting to us. It is not like there just aren't women interested in superheroes; something about Hollywood has kept women out of those spaces in particular.
posted by Sequence at 6:36 AM on February 23, 2018 [6 favorites]


Oh darn, and I bet he had a great scene where Alysia Yeoh get killed suddenly two thirds of the way through because he couldn't think of any other way to raise the stakes than to randomly kill a nice person to motivate the protagonists. What a loss.

(It's his signature fucking move and you KNOW it would've been Alysia.)
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 6:38 AM on February 23, 2018 [6 favorites]


I want Greta Gerwig on Batgirl. At the very least, I want her to write the script. The tone of her writing is the kind I'd love see for Batgirl -- witty, playful and smart, but also heartfelt.

I too would like to see Batgirl set in Sacramento.
posted by leotrotsky at 6:38 AM on February 23, 2018 [2 favorites]


CAN YOU IMAGINE A ROXANE GAY BATGIRL I AM ON THE VERGE OF TEARS
posted by a fiendish thingy at 6:39 AM on February 23, 2018 [6 favorites]


Roxane Gay deserves all the love and all the work, but I really, really think that Gail Simone should have a crack at this particular project, especially given the way that DC has treated her WRT Barbara Gordon.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:56 AM on February 23, 2018 [4 favorites]


Claire Denis is awesome. I've seen most everything she's done (at least up until 2010 or so). And I mean everything. She's directed TV shows, shorts, and commercials. I attended a retrospective of her work at the Walker, and watched her flicks one after the other, and her other endeavors as well. She was supposed to lecture as well, but there was difficulty with her Visa or something and she was unable to attend. For some of the movies I was the only one in attendance. I'm a huge Tindersticks fan and they do much of the soundtracks to many of her movies, so if she does do a Batgirl we need to stipulate that Stuart Staples or the Tindersticks do the music.

If you have no idea where to start with her films I suggest Nenette and Boni. I would suggest staying away from Trouble Every Day until you fully understand what you are getting yourself into. If you want to check out the Tindersticks I still recommend their first two CDs. They have survived the test of time. Some of their more recent work is much less ambitious (but still good).
posted by cjorgensen at 7:20 AM on February 23, 2018


I want Greta Gerwig on Batgirl.

"Batgirl? Is that your given name?"

"I gave it to myself, it's given to me, by me."
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:38 AM on February 23, 2018 [2 favorites]


Agnès Varda could do it. She may win an Oscar this year and her two last notable non-documentary movies have RT scores of 96 and 100% respectively. She's 89 but Clint Eastwood is 88 and still given big budgets so that should not be a problem. She did a movie with Harrison Ford, Easwood and de Niro so she can handle Hollywoood stars. One could even retcon Cléo from 5 to 7 as an origin story for Batgirl. Also, she's a good person. Alain Resnais came close to do Spider-Man after all.
posted by elgilito at 8:31 AM on February 23, 2018 [1 favorite]


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