<\/p>\n
Predating Chris Nolan\u2019s Batman trilogy, the Marvel Cinematic Universe launch and all three Spider-Mans, the main character in her 2001 short \u201cVelocity Rules\u201d was an accident-prone housewife.<\/p>\n
\u201cI loved [Spanish filmmaker] Pedro Almod\u00f3var,\u201d Jenkins recalled. \u201cAnd I loved superhero films, so I tried to do a short film that was a cross between superhero films and Almod\u00f3var’s tone about a housewife. This woman is, like, \u2018Oh, my God, I’m a superhero.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
Sitting inside a tiny Santa Monica cafe, Jenkins is something of an unlikely superhero herself. Dressed in the traditional West Coast athleisure attire \u2014 white track jacket, flip-flops and ponytail \u2014 of her native land, she certainly does not seem like a woman with a major and groundbreaking film premiere mere days away, a film that could determine the fate of female superheroes for years to come.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s frank but not flippant, engaged but not hasty. She\u2019s consistent as well. The woman calmly conversing at a coffee shop is remarkably similar to the woman who addressed an auditorium of comic book fanatics at WonderCo<\/a>n. She\u2019s cool. She\u2019s sharp. She\u2019s the boss.<\/p>\n Reminiscing about that first superhero short, made while she was at the AFI Conservatory, brings a smile to her face; she delights in breaking down the genre of superheroes, getting to the meaning behind the spectacle.<\/p>\n \u201c \u2018Superman I\u2019 had been a favorite movie of mine, even when I was at Cooper Union, which is a very fine-arts school,\u201d Jenkins said. \u201cPeople were painting a portrait of the career that I could have as an indie New York filmmaker. The only thing that stood in my way from staying in New York \u2014 because I loved New York and I wanted to stay \u2014 was something more that I wanted to do that was inspired by \u2018Superman.\u2019 One day I would love to sing a song to the world, to bring something into the world that is beautiful in that sort of way.\u201d<\/p>\n That song is her big, beautiful and bold \u201cWonder Woman.\u201d In a world awash with dark, cynical superhero stories, Jenkins\u2019 \u201cWonder Woman\u201d is a return to the sort of grand tales that kicked off the careers of Christopher Reeve and Lynda Carter.<\/p>\n