I made a "how I would make a Wonder Woman movie" post on Facebook and I decided to inflict it on you all.
The origin story is revamped 40s- We begin with a brief introduction where Wonder Woman's mom, Hippolyta, relates the origins of Themyscira and the Amazons to some kids, then American pilot Steve Trevor crashes near a mysterious island, is rescued by Diana, who is Hippolyta's daughter with Hercules. Diana helps nurse him back to health, we figure out they're attracted to one another, and Hippolyta decides that one lucky Amazon gets to go back with Steve to see whether the world is ready for the Amazons to reveal themselves. Diana resolves to be the one, and we get a brief montage of training. Hippolyta asks the gods to guide Diana, and a couple of deities drop by to teach her a little bit about the modern world to blend in. Act 1 ends with Diana being chosen to return Steve Trevor and them arriving in some city.
Act 2 starts with Diana disguising herself as a military officer and offering to serve as "house mother" to a sorority, so she can learn as much as possible about Man's World. Etta Candy is introduced and basically becomes her sidekick as Diana resolves to do something about the sorry state of Man's World, we get some crime-busting sequences, including ones where she unveils embezzlement, discovers pollution, etc. In the process, we have some shady goings-on with supertech, and Diana trying out rom-com hijinks from watching TV and having them fail.
Act 3 reveals, thanks to Etta's compulsive detective disorder, that the supertech is linked to Cale Holdings, and we get some exposition about Veronica Cale, who started in pharmaceuticals and then made billions in cosmetics and now owns a bunch of companies. Diana investigates, and discovers a genius computer scientist and electronics engineer, Paula von Gunther, migrated from Austria to work with Cale Holdings. Then she has a fight with a couple of robots with lasers and gatling guns and then she uses her lasso of truth on the guy with the remote control to get him to spill the beans on Paula's location. Also, she figures out that Steve prefers Diana the Amazon.
Act 4 features another action scene as Diana breaks into Cale Holdings, deals with a bunch of deathtraps, and then confronts Paula von Gunther, who we've been seeing throughout the film... and it turns out she's working for Cale under duress, in order to get her daughter through college, for topicality. Diana offers to do anything she can to help, and then Cale releases all of the robots anyways, to try and blame things on Wonder Woman somehow.
Act 5 is Diana, Paula, and Etta working together to stop the robots, rescue a kidnapped Steve Trevor, and get Paula's daughter safely into hiding, following which a couple Amazons pick them up, offering the educational opportunity of a lifetime. Paula stays behind, saying that she wants to pay Diana back for her help. We cut between Hippolyta introducing herself to Paula's daughter, Veronica Cale crossing off "robots" on her "list of ways to stop Wonder Woman", and some kind of setup for the next movie (we have basically exhausted all of the OK Wonder Woman villains at this point). The stinger is Paula explaining how she's developing a revolution in stealth technology, in front of a bunch of airplane parts, possibly while we have a setup for Justice League.
Basically- the Amazons really do live on a Paradise, Wonder Woman is explicitly here to change the world for the better, and superscience robots coexist with Zeus. Veronica Cale is angry and more than a little jealous that Wonder Woman is able to ram through boundaries she wasn't able to, distinguishing her from Lex Luthor and his basically motiveless malignity towards Superman.
Character Notes: Wonder Woman: Whoever plays her needs to be fairly powerful-looking. Height isn't as big a deal because it's easier to block shots to play with height, but shoulder pads are right out. Antje Traue, who played Faora in Man of Steel, is a pretty good candidate.
Hippolyta: She should be older, somewhat dignified. Not Judi Dench old, but maybe Ellen Degeneres with a little makeup, to perhaps give this a lighthearted tinge? Or Helen Mirren, to make it more serious.
Steve Trevor: He should basically be wholesome, girl-next-door, but gender-swapped. His relationship with Wonder Woman is basically like a reversed Lois Lane-Clark Kent relationship. I have no idea who to cast here.
Etta Candy: Etta was created as Wonder Woman's Jimmy Olsen, but her main thing was being obese. There were a lot of uncomfortable jokes, but since these were the 40s and William Moulton Marston was cool for the time, these jokes ended up with her single-handedly liberating a concentration camp, and that sort of thing. So not a huge change to make her something less uncomfortable and really fun. We need somebody that's able to play a character who's cool and funny at the same time, like RDJ playing Tony Stark. Wanda Sykes is a little too old. So is Lea DeLaria. I guess that probably this would have to go to a newer/new actress, perhaps pulling from Tyler Perry's group?
Dr. Paula von Gunther: Her original story had Nazis, but was basically the same. She then stuck around as Wonder Woman's resident wacky mad scientist. I think you can basically cast whoever here, maybe even unknowns.
Veronica Cale: She was created as a Lex Luthor equivalent but hasn't done much. She should look somewhat high-class and arch, and get plenty of good lines when she's on scene.
Note: roughly 90% of the plot and background was taken directly from the comics or proposed for inclusion in the comics. I also have ideas for a Justice League movie that has even less chance of getting made.
