Before Patty Jenkins had beef with Warner Bros. surrounding her involvement in the now-canceled Wonder Woman 3, the director had grievances with the folks funding her 2003 Oscar-winning scripted true crime film, Monster. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Monster star, Charlize Theron, who would ultimately nab an Academy Award for her portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wuornos, spoke about her time working with the filmmaker and how she inspired the Mad Max: Fury Road actress to stand up for her craft.
Theron’s portrayal of Wuornos was something that the film’s financiers didn’t agree with. The actress went under a major makeover, which included shaving her eyebrows and gaining 30 pounds, making her unrecognizable. During her interview, the actress recalled receiving a phone call at 3 a.m. from one of the financiers, a group made up of predominantly “older, white men,” during which he said that upon reviewing the film, he didn’t think it would land as Theron was “so fat and so ugly,” adding that the character and never flashed a smile throughout the feature. Admittedly, Theron says that she believed him and panicked before calling Jenkins who said, “Don’t f***ing listen to that.” She goes on to say that it was “the first time I heard a woman go, “F*** them,” and it was a rebellion that I never knew before,” also referring to the director as “a f***ing pit bull.”
Jenkins’ rebellious attitude has certainly helped further her career but is currently taking the heat from some fans who are upset that the director is seemingly the reason behind the cancelation of Wonder Woman 3. News broke yesterday that the Gal Godot-led production was no longer in motion with many blaming Warner Bros. and the recent DC Studios takeover by James Gunn and Peter Safran. But, The Wrap later confirmed that this wasn’t the case at all as a script discrepancy between Jenkins and the studio caused the filmmaker to turn her back on the project.
It was reported that Jenkins handed in her Wonder Woman 3 treatment last week with Warner Bros. Film Group Co-Charpersons and CEOs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy asking Jenkins to head back to the drawing board as they didn’t like the direction she was taking. Although she was told that she could present a new treatment, The Wrap’s source says that instead, Jenkins told De Luca and Abdy that “they didn’t understand her, didn’t understand the character, didn’t understand character arcs and didn’t understand what Jenkins was trying to do.” And with that, Jenkins bid adieu to the story of Diana Prince, now making it the studio’s decision whether to carry on with a new vision or to scrap the piece altogether.
Bringing it back to Monster, in the end, Theron would end up signing on as a producer alongside Jenkins to hold more sway when it came to how the story was told. The duo laughed all the way to the bank and down the red carpets of the awards circuit as the film, and particularly Theron’s performance would land a slew of award nominations and wins. It would also rake in $64.2 million against its $1.5 million budget, with Theron and Jenkins putting their money where their mouths were and giving the middle-finger-up attitude to the financiers involved. If you’re a true crime fan that hasn’t seen the film, it’s one of the best scripted tellinga of perhaps the most notorious female serial killer out there.
While some may be mad at Jenkins for no longer being part of the Wonder Woman franchise, no one can argue that she is, in fact, “a f****ing pitbull.” Check out the trailer for Monster below and catch it on Netflix where it’s currently streaming.
