Patty Jenkins to direct Wonder Woman

[Vanguard-01]

Let alone that that bear-fight is probably the likeliest depiction of what a person, however strong, would do if thrown into a pit to fight a bear with nothing but a training sword: keeping as far away as possible from its reach and thinking about a way to climb out of that regrettable situation. Chilling? Yes. Action-packed? No.

Yup. That scene was NOT an action scene. It was a tense, dramatic scene, intended to make us fear for Brienne's safety.

Seriously, out of Michelle Maclaren's GOT episodes, I don't think she has directed a single action-packed scene in the show yet. Nothing spectacular, anyway.

I can't comment about whether or not she directed action scenes in Breaking Bad, because I never watched Breaking Bad. But the truth remains that Maclaren doesn't exactly have a wealth of action experience, either.

[Silvanus]

I think her career is still starting, she is not a katryn bigelow or even a julie taymor. I see nothing extraordinary on that.

She's not as accomplished as Bigelow or Taymor, but give her a couple of decades; those two are 21 to 22 years older than her. By "extraordinarily successful," I meant, of course, she's extraordinarily successful for someone her age--not that she's racked up more successes than the top directors who are 20 years further into her career. Maclaren isn't as accomplished as Bigelow or Taymor either, and that's understandable, since she's only six years older than Jenkins.

Let alone that that bear-fight is probably the likeliest depiction of what a person, however strong, would do if thrown into a pit to fight a bear with nothing but a training sword: keeping as far away as possible from its reach and thinking about a way to climb out of that regrettable situation. Chilling? Yes. Action-packed? No.

Yeah, good point. That scene does more to demonstrate Maclaren's ability to direct a character-driven movie than to demonstrate whether or not she has the ability to direct an "epic origin in the vein of Braveheart." Even the most action packed of bear fights probably wouldn't tell use whether or not she has the skill set needed to manage massive battle scenes involving what looks like a couple thousand extras, if that's what "in the vein of Braveheart" happens to mean.

[Blacksun]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/...sequences.html

the article claims Michelle Mclaren is the Best Tv director. maybe not but they highlight the best moments of her carrer:

Even among this elite crew of screen bloodletters, MacLaren’s deft staging of gunplay, fistfights, car wrecks, and prison shankings stood out; filmmaking-crazed formalist viewers (a small and admittedly odd group that includes yours truly) began to notice her flair for suspense and violence and caught a buzz from seeing her name after the words “Directed by.” MacLaren “got a lot of action-centric episodes where there were shootouts and giant explosions, or where they were in the desert for days,” says Anna Gunn, who played Walter White’s beleaguered wife, Skyler, on Breaking Bad. “She did those kinds of things incredibly well; the episodes started looking like big feature films.”

here is Mclaren with a exclusive contract with HBO to develop

Even with Wonder Woman looming, she’s directed the second episode of Better Call Saul and has signed a two-year deal with HBO to develop and oversee new projects.

She was a better fit than Jenkins. It's not like I expect warner to do the best choices, but here we are.

I don't really know. Obviously there was violence in Monster, but maybe not the kind of fights you mean, if you mean symmetrical, extended, intricately choreographed fights between characters who were skilled combatants. But I imagine Jenkins and her staff will be able to figure out how to do the explosions and fights that are needed, as long as the combatants aren't as unwieldy as, say, all of Scotland on horseback.

If they get a good choreographer the scenes might be good. Nolan is a good director but his fight scenes are dull

[Silvanus]

She was a better fit than Jenkins.

They've both done great work, and unless somehow in the fullness of time they both direct versions of Wonder Woman, we'll never really know who was potentially the better fit. Maclaren's a more experienced tv director, while Jenkins, besides having done award-winning tv work, spectacularly overachieved in her first (and so far only) full-length feature film. As EP of Breaking Bad, Maclaren has probably had more management experience, while Jenkins has more writing experience (which could matter a lot if the script needs much revision). Maclaren has more experience making tv-scale action scenes look almost cinematic, and Jenkins seems to be a bit more noted for character development.

The article you cite mentions Maclaren's "flare for suspense and violence"; as a fan of Breaking Bad, I agree that she has that flare; but, having just watched Jenkins' pilot of The Killing, I can tell you that she has a major flare for suspense too. And I'm not sure that a "flare for...violence" is a prerequisite for directing Wonder Woman. In the end, it sounds like Maclaren, while she might have been a great fit for some other Wonder Woman movie, wasn't, just based on her own aspirations, a great fit for the kind of Wonder Woman movie Warner is prepared to make-- which may (or, of course, may not) ultimately turn out to be a great kind of Wonder Woman movie.