io9 has footage of actress Tanit Phoenix auditioning for David E. Kelley's "Wonder Woman" TV show (the role has ultimately gone to Adrianne Palicki.) The results seem to confirm many folks' worst fears about what a superheroine reimagined by the creator of the noxious "Ally McBeal" would sound like. Watch on, if you dare. My impressions, after the jump...
In the sequence in question, Diana is critiquing a new run of Wonder Woman action-figures; with subsequent dialogue explaining that merchandising the WW "brand" (hence the "corporate CEO side-job) is how she funds her superhero operation. So, yeah... a multimillion dollar prime-time network TV project from one of the most successful writer/producers in the business based on a 70 year-old property has borrowed the entirety of it's "new hook" from a defunct Adult Swim series.
The "humor" of the bit is Diana being annoyed that the dolls are wearing an older version of her outfit instead of the one she wears now (which she feels is "a tad more appropriate") because the "more iconic" one sells better. So... take this as pretty close to confirmation that they'll be using something akin to the godawful "modernized" uniform from Straczynski's current run, and taking cheap-shots at the original-iteration for good measure. "Ho ho! Isn't this source-material stupid? Aren't you thankful we clever TV writers have been able to rebuild it into something good? Success!"
SIDEBAR: Listen to this dialogue, then google up some of the Adam West "Batman" for an excellent comparative-demonstration of "affectionate parody" versus "I'm too good for this genre" smugness.
Finally, since "strong" leading-women on TV only come in two flavors - "Humorless Hardass" ("The Good Wife") or "Bucket Of Insecurities" ("Grey's Anatomy," "Brothers & Sisters") - she get's a mini-monologue about how insecure she feels because the dolls have nicer breasts than she does. Because when you picture an immortal superhuman Amazon, the first scenario that leaps to mind is crying into her Ben&Jerrys about her cup-size.
Well, so much for that.
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