Quote:
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud
It's silly. I have absolutely zero problems with female directors but to purposely hire a female director because the film's feature star is female just seems odd to me.
Where's the mandate to hire a female to direct Aquaman or Planet Hulk? Or are female directors just relegated to female lead characters?
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My interpretation is that it's a pr-/marketing-motivated decision. Look how we're empowering women in Hollywood by having women write/direct/produce female comic heroines. Women are by far a minority audience for any geek media, whether it's science fiction or comic-inspired, and I interpret these hires as targeting that audience.
At the end of the day there are major issues with gender imbalance in entertainment, so I don't really have an issue with it, so long as the women hired are qualified and do a good job. Maybe some success here will help open doors and help balance the scales down the road. To the point that gender isn't relevant to the discussion. Although at the same time there's the risk that box office and/or critical failure by either of these films (referring to ww and cm) will result in a step back toward the perception that female leads can't carry franchises and female directors can't deliver the goods. Because there's little doubt in my mind that they'll face tougher scrutiny than their male counterparts, whether we're talking writers, actresses or production staff.
Regardless, they can't afford for either of these movies to fail, not just for that reason, but because they're both such major characters in their respective comic universe.