PORTAL
010 | W W W.SCI FI N OW.CO.U K
“[Laughs] It’s funny how the music of that
most romantic time in your life when you
come to like all of those emotions for the first
time is crystallised forever! I actually lived
in England for six months when I was in the
4th or 5th grade so I very influenced by the
punk scene and the New Romantic scene that
was happening. So my first loves were Gary
Newman and Adam Ant. Probably pretty
quickly thereafter it was Michael Jackson but
yeah all different kinds of things before I got
into the more obscure stuff!”
Wonder Woman was a success for DC,
taking over $800 million at the box office.
It was also the first studio superhero movie
directed by a woman. It may have lassoed
Jenkins’ career into the stratosphere but
she has been in the industry for many
years, taking on various roles, and it’s that
experience that has shaped these movies.
“I started working in this industry in 1993.
I was a camera person for ten years, and then
[I started] writing and doing short films. Then
I wrote and directed Monster and I really feel
like all the years of accumulated experience
is the secret [to success]. That’s what’s so
interesting. Many people who I know who
are my favourites didn’t start out as the
most gifted people necessarily but it turned
out to be tenacity. The long period of time
of learning makes you able to engage withmany different aspects of the politics and the
technical and the emotional and also what
you want out of it.
“I feel certainly those years helped me
hone into what I was looking for. I don’t careabout being a huge director, I may make big
movies, I may not, but I really care about
making movies that I believe in and that I
engage with emotionally. That’s a great thing
to know going in because you can always getYou know when you’re bored on
the weekend and decide to swing
through a mall? No, us neither...“ALL THE YEARS
OF ACCUMULATED
EXPERIENCE IS THE
SECRET [TO SUCCESS]”
PATTY JENKINSsomething out of it in that way, successful
or not.”
So does she feel more confident after
the success of the first Wonder Woman
movie? “No, never [laughs]. Every movie is
its own struggle to touch people and make
a difference. [The first] Wonder Woman
surprised a lot of people so [with the sequel]
you’re walking into a situation where they’re
waiting for you to fail more than ever. So it’s
no different because making the first movie
was the same in that everybody thought
‘Wonder Woman, come on, you can’t’. There’s
a history of these movies tanking and so it
was a lot of pressure to be the person to take
on trying to bring that movie to life. It’s a lot
of pressure again to try to make this one live
up to what it could be, so in both cases I’ve
simply focused on ‘I love Wonder Woman and
I love this genre of film at its best and so I’m
just trying to make a great film’.”
Now that WW84 is completed, what about
a Wonder Woman 3? “‘Wonder Woman 3’ oh,
wow! I’m trying to make myself not think
about that because every movie has to be
taken on its own but there’s definitely final
things for me that I haven’t got to explore with
Wonder Woman that we’ll see if we decide to
go and explore...”Wonder Woman will be in cinemas on 5 June.008-010_SFN_170 Lead Portal.indd 10 17/03/2020 16:PORTAL
010 | W W W.SCI FI N OW.CO.U K
“[Laughs] It’s funny how the music of that
most romantic time in your life when you
come to like all of those emotions for the first
time is crystallised forever! I actually lived
in England for six months when I was in the
4th or 5th grade so I very influenced by the
punk scene and the New Romantic scene that
was happening. So my first loves were Gary
Newman and Adam Ant. Probably pretty
quickly thereafter it was Michael Jackson but
yeah all different kinds of things before I got
into the more obscure stuff!”
Wonder Woman was a success for DC,
taking over $800 million at the box office.
It was also the first studio superhero movie
directed by a woman. It may have lassoed
Jenkins’ career into the stratosphere but
she has been in the industry for many
years, taking on various roles, and it’s that
experience that has shaped these movies.
“I started working in this industry in 1993.
I was a camera person for ten years, and then
[I started] writing and doing short films. Then
I wrote and directed Monster and I really feel
like all the years of accumulated experience
is the secret [to success]. That’s what’s so
interesting. Many people who I know who
are my favourites didn’t start out as the
most gifted people necessarily but it turned
out to be tenacity. The long period of time
of learning makes you able to engage with
many different aspects of the politics and the
technical and the emotional and also what
you want out of it.
“I feel certainly those years helped me
hone into what I was looking for. I don’t careabout being a huge director, I may make big
movies, I may not, but I really care about
making movies that I believe in and that I
engage with emotionally. That’s a great thing
to know going in because you can always getYou know when you’re bored on
the weekend and decide to swing
through a mall? No, us neither...“ALL THE YEARS
OF ACCUMULATED
EXPERIENCE IS THE
SECRET [TO SUCCESS]”
PATTY JENKINSsomething out of it in that way, successful
or not.”
So does she feel more confident after
the success of the first Wonder Woman
movie? “No, never [laughs]. Every movie is
its own struggle to touch people and make
a difference. [The first] Wonder Woman
surprised a lot of people so [with the sequel]
you’re walking into a situation where they’re
waiting for you to fail more than ever. So it’s
no different because making the first movie
was the same in that everybody thought
‘Wonder Woman, come on, you can’t’. There’s
a history of these movies tanking and so it
was a lot of pressure to be the person to take
on trying to bring that movie to life. It’s a lot
of pressure again to try to make this one live
up to what it could be, so in both cases I’ve
simply focused on ‘I love Wonder Woman and
I love this genre of film at its best and so I’m
just trying to make a great film’.”
Now that WW84 is completed, what about
a Wonder Woman 3? “‘Wonder Woman 3’ oh,
wow! I’m trying to make myself not think
about that because every movie has to be
taken on its own but there’s definitely final
things for me that I haven’t got to explore with
Wonder Woman that we’ll see if we decide to
go and explore...”Wonder Woman will be in cinemas on 5 June.