‘Wonder Woman': Director Patty Jenkins Says ‘Superman,’ ‘Casablanca’ Inspired Blockbuster

“Wonder Woman” director Patty Jenkins used three famous movies as her inspiration for the upcoming female superhero film: “Superman,” “Casablanca” and “Indiana Jones.”

Jenkins told Fandango that Richard Donner’s original 1978 “Superman,” starring Christopher Reeve, was the main source of inspiration for “Wonder Woman.”

“I worked really hard to have that happen,” she said. “I miss that kind of movie and this felt like a perfect place to be old and new again in that way and say, ‘Here’s the grandam of superheroes and here’s her story and here’s how she made us feel as little girls and here’s how she can inspire little girls today,’ you know? In a very pure and straightforward way. I’m so happy that people have noticed that. Sometimes they haven’t, sometimes they’re just commenting that she’s hitting the same buttons that Christopher Reeve did, which is like a dream come true. It’s everything that we went for. That was the big inspiration.”

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When it came to Chris Pine’s character, Steve Trevor, Jenkins said she drew from Indiana Jones: “He stays a man, is funny, and is like an everyman that we love and we root for, but one that’s actually not uncomfortable adjusting to a new, different kind of woman. So, Indiana Jones was a big inspiration.”

And Jenkins looked to “Casablanca” as source material for the love story between Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor.

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“I wanted a great love story where both characters have integrity and it might be set in the complexity of war, but it turns into a grand love story,” she said.

“Wonder Woman” stars Pine, Gal Gadot, Robin Wright and Danny Huston and will hit theaters on June 2.