Warner Bros. Reportedly Planning Massive ‘Wonder Woman’ Oscar Campaign
Wonder Womanhas made leaps and bounds at the box office and with the critics, but thePatty Jenkins-helmed superhero movie is looking to make the leap over yet another Hollywood establishment: the Academy Awards.
Warner Bros. is reportedly planning to launch a “groundbreaking” Oscar campaign for the female-led superhero movie for both the Best Picture and Best Director categories. If the studio succeeds, it would makeWonder Womanthe first comic book movie ever nominated for Best Picture, and Jenkins the first woman to be nominated for Best Director since Kathryn Bigelow became the first female director to win forThe Hurt Lockerin 2010.
Wonder Womanhasbroken box office records, amassing nearly $781 million worldwide, and still going. It’s also gained the love from critics and audiences alike, causing Warner Bros. to embark on anextreme creative pivotin the direction of their DC Extended Universe.
Now the studio is placing even more expectations on the DCEU’s first female-led superhero movie, reportedly “launching a formidable awards-season campaign for the movie,” according toVariety.
The studio hopes to makeWonder Womanthe first comic book movie to be nominated for Best Picture after the Academy stubbornly avoided the genre sinceThe Dark Knightwas snubbed in 2008. Warner Bros. will also go to battle for a Best Director nod for Jenkins, which Variety noted would be “groundbreaking.” No director, including Christopher Nolan, has ever been nominated for a comic book movie and onlyfour women in historyhave ever been nominated for the category.
No numbers have been confirmed for how much Warner Bros. is planning to spend on theWonder WomanOscar campaign, but it’s likely to be costly. “Big dollars are spent on taking out advertising, making watermarked DVDs, setting screenings, and paying for talent to travel to both coasts, to remind voters how hard they suffered for their craft,” Variety reports.
Scoff as much as you like — or rage thatLogandeserves just as much Oscar love — but an Oscar nod forWonder Womanis totally possible. And it would be a great capper for a surprise hit that Warner Bros. was initially so unsure about — karmic retribution against all the naysayers, you might say.
I think thatWonder Womandeserves, and could get, an Oscar nomination. The Academy Awards have started to soften in regards to genre films — just look at all the accolades thatMad Max Fury Roaddeservedly got at the 2016 Oscars. And with the Academy expanding its roster to young, diverse members — includingWonder WomanstarGal Gadotherself — there will definitely be more love toward genre and sci-fi films. Now, about that getting Andy Serkis that Best Actor nomination…
