Director Nicolas Winding Refn talks about 'His' Wonder Woman Movie

I'm trying to stay calm about this. Last month, I talked Nicolas Winding Refn wanting to direct a WW movie; and I took that with a grain of sea salt.

But now, he gives details. Here's some of his interview in Movieline:

I found this awesome comment on your IMDB page: “If you do wonder woman, don´t make her violent, like that cartoon, that i would never show my children. Wonder woman cut the head of an enemy in it…not so good to look at…” How would you respond to that?
I would say I could never do that, because I have kids myself who would go watch Wonder Woman. But one of the things I encounter is that a lot of people have more opinions about me than have actually seen my films.

Yet when you have something like a Wonder Woman movie, which is based on a brand, it’s pretty in-your-face. There’s nothing especially subliminal about it.
At the same time there is, because the real origin of Wonder Woman is: What if women were more powerful than men? What would the world be like? That’s a subliminal theme.

But knowing what we know about Hollywood, is that the only way you’d make that movie?
No, it’s not the only way, but I think that would be a starting point for looking at it. You need a great, extravagant, marketable action film — and everything that comes with it. But I think that when Christopher Nolan did the Batman movies, I think he very cleverly went back to the source material and took themes that had maybe not been exercised. And he was able to make very good and successful films with them. So I think the audience is very much out there. It’s just how you do it. And I think that some of the films that have worked over the years have worked for different reasons than people sometimes think they do.

And where Wonder Woman on one hand is a great female character who can be included in many great fight scenes, she doesn’t have great villains against her. OK, so you create some. She doesn’t have a Joker or those classic Batman kinds of guys. But she does have her whole world that she comes from, which is fascinating. The whole idea of a woman who is basically more powerful than any man — and who will always be that, and comes from a society of women who are more powerful than men — is an interesting theme that I think can be very contemporary.

But if you were to show Wonder Woman in this context, getting pummeled by a male villain? Would it have to be a female villain to get your true point across? Well, that’s when it gets interesting, because you have to create a great countervillain to her. They tried in Catwoman — with not particularly good results. The trick with Wonder Woman is to find that antagonist who worked so well in the Batman concept — his villains are equally if not more exciting than Batman himself. Here, it’s basically coming up with who would be a great counterpart to Wonder Woman. Is it her mother who’s the real enemy? Something that’s biblical in a sense.

I'm liking this guy, so far. Still nervous and yet, excited. Really excited.

Thank you so much Son of Baldwin for sending me this!