Director Patty Jenkins: A 13-year journey to make “Wonder Woman”

© 2017 WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC. AND RATPAC ENTERTAINMENT, LLC(NEW YORK) — Wonder Woman hits theaters tonight in select cities and opens nationwide tomorrow. While it’s the first modern superhero movie with a woman leading the charge onscreen, it’s also the first superhero film with a female director.

Patty Jenkins, who’s been behind the camera for films like Monster, tells ABC Radio she’s been a superfan of the Wonder Woman character for years.

“I think she is the grand, classic superhero,” Jenkins says of her muse.

“Of which there are very few. Many of the superheroes stand for different, smaller things. She is a hero, uncomplicated, loving, kind. Also sexy, cool, tough, bada**.

But Jenkins says it’s the “love” that Wonder Woman embodies that really sets her apart.

“The fact that she stands for, ‘Yes, I’m a hero, yes I’m here to save the world, but I’m also here to teach you love and truth and I believe in you all being better’ makes it so special,” the director says. 

Jenkins had the idea for a Wonder Woman film in the works since 2004, but she says there was a lack of “confidence” in female superheroes at the time.

“It got lost in this strange belief system that action movies were only for boys and that superheroes were only for boys,” she explained. “[But] comics have always had a bunch of great female characters and a bunch of great female superheroes.”

Wonder Woman stars Gal Gadot in the title role, along with Chris PineRobin Wright and Connie Nielsen.

Copyright © 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.

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