We get insights into the first Wonder Woman movie that was released back in 2017 which opened to over $100 million and brought in over $822 million.
The flick was directed by Patty Jenkins and written by Alan Heinberg, with Zack Snyder producing along with Geoff Johns.
It’s been reported that Snyder and Johns butted heads and that Johns has caused all kinds of problems with the DCEU, but at least in the case of the first Wonder Woman, we can thank both Snyder and Johns.
Alan Heinberg participated in an interview with the New York Film Academy and spoke about how he came on board to write Wonder Woman.
He revealed that it was Geoff Johns who introduced him to Zack Snyder.
Heinberg says he didn’t think he would get the gig due to his pitch being so different than the Snyder films, but says he was surprised when Snyder liked it and decided to do it.
He also says that Snyder and his producer wife Deborah Snyder gave him all kinds of notes, so we see Zack was fully involved with not just his DCEU films, but all of them, at least the early ones.
Alan Heinberg was also busy writing the Scandal TV series, and also wrote Wonder Woman at DC Comics which is probably how Johns brought him on board.
Regarding what happened with Wonder Woman 1984, it has been reported that Patty Jenkins got rid of Snyder and his entire team that was involved with the first movie, which included Snyder’s VFX and stunt team, and we can add Alan Heinberg as well. Reportedly, Jenkins is a nightmare to work with, according to YouTuber Grace Randolph.
Checking IMDb, you can even see that Wonder Woman 1984 added new producers including Gal Gadot who made her debut as a producer, which probably also explains why the flick massively bombed.
Alan Heinberg? He’s now show-running Netflix’s popular DC Sandman series where he is also writing and producing.
What did Alan Heinberg say about Wonder Woman?
Credit to ZackSnyderFilm on Twitter for transcribing the interview:
“So I tell this story to Zack, and Zack is like, I can tell that these, I approach things differently, I guess, than, I mean, Zach’s movies are very, they’re not emotional, primarily emotional, and I tend to approach things in a primarily emotional way.
“So I didn’t expect Zack to respond necessarily, but I was there to eat my chicken and save my piece and go… And Zack’s people pushed back, and I think they really were trying to protect him and protect all the work they had done.
“And then we walk out to the parking lot after about two and a half hours, three hours, and Zack is like, ‘so what are you doing tomorrow?’ And I was like, ‘well, scandal, what’s going on?’ And he’s like, ‘well, do you think you could be here by 7:15?’ And I was like, ‘for what exactly?’ And he’s like, ‘dude, we’re gonna do your movie.’
“And I was like, ‘what?’ And he’s like ‘Yeah, let’s do that, we should do that. Like, I’ll get whiteboards, it’ll be you and me and Geoff, and we’ll just, like, re-break the movie from scratch.’ And I’m like… he hasn’t talked to anyone wearing suspenders back at the ranch with the sideburns.
“So I was like, ‘I’m full-time on scandal, dude, I can’t…’ So he’s like, ‘you can do it, I know you can do it.’ And Zack is awesome. Like, when he looks at you with his surfer-y eyes and like his tattoos and he tells you you can do it, no one talks to me that way. Okay, if Zack thinks I can do it, I can do it.
“So I write the treatment in a week, and then Zach is like, ‘cool, that got approved, you’re writing the script.’ And I said, ‘no, no.’ ‘Cause they needed it in no time. The movie had a release date, like we’re now up against it…
“The happy ending is the movie was made and it was that movie so Zach was true to his word…I mean, listen, look at what happened. Like, there was no job for me. There was no job. They didn’t call and say like, ‘hey, you wanna write the Wonder Woman movie?’
“Geoff said, ‘will you come and talk to Zack?’ And if Zack hadn’t been open and hadn’t seen the value, I mean, you saw it, it’s a relationship movie. It has some fighting in it and stuff, but it’s about these two people and about a mom and a daughter, but like, it’s a relationship movie. That’s what it’s about.
“That is a profound change from the way that, and I was convinced that Zack because of his, that hasn’t been what he’s done up until now. “Like Zack is a hero to me for championing this vision of this movie.”
Watch the video:
Wonder Woman writer Allan Heinberg discusses working with Zack Snyder to create the Wonder Woman script:
— Zack Snyder Film (@ZackSnyderFilm) October 18, 2023
"So I tell this story to Zack, and Zack is like, I can tell that these, I approach things differently, I guess, than, I mean, Zach's movies are very, they're not emotional,… pic.twitter.com/V92ztWI0z2
