Joss Whedon to helm ‘Wonder Woman’

LOS ANGELES — “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” creator Joss Whedon is preparing to bring to life another formidable female character in his latest movie endeavor.

Whedon has signed on to write and direct “Wonder Woman,” a live-action film adaptation of the DC Comics character, for Warner Bros. Pictures.

“Wonder Woman is the most iconic female heroine of our time, but in a way, no one has met her yet,” Whedon said in a statement. “What I love most about icons is finding out what’s behind them, exploring the price of their power.”

He added: “There is a woman behind the legend who is very fascinating, very uncompromising and in her own way almost vulnerable. She’s someone who doesn’t belong in this world, and since everyone I know feels that way about themselves, the character clicked for me.”

According to the lore of the comic book, Wonder Woman is the superhero name of Diana, an Amazonian princess from Paradise Island, an uncharted island to which the Amazons fled to escape domination by the ancient Greeks and Romans. She has super strength, bracelets that deflect bullets and a golden lasso that ensnares victims and forces them to tell the truth. She has, at times, even had her own super vehicle, an invisible plane.

Wonder Woman was created by educational consultant William Moulton Marston and first appeared in All Star Comics in 1941. Because of her popularity, she got her own self-titled comic series six months later. Lynda Carter played the heroine in the TV series that ran on ABC and CBS from 1976 to 1979.

Warner Bros. is known to have been eyeing a Wonder Woman feature for some time.

Whedon created the influential WB Network/UPN drama series “Buffy” and its spinoff “Angel.” He is in postproduction on the Universal Pictures feature “Serenity,” which he wrote and directed based on his short-lived Fox drama series “Firefly.”

His other writing credits include the features “Toy Story” and “Alien: Resurrection,” and he is penning the Marvel comic “Astonishing X-Men.”