It shall not be quickly forgotten that last June 2 saw the premiere of Warner Brothers’ and DC Films’ “Wonder Woman,” the first major live-action movie adaptation of the most iconic superheroine of all. Starring Gal Gadot, it would go on to significant box-office success and mainstream popularity and ensure that Warner-DCS own attempts at a cinematic universe to rival that of Disney-Marvel would not sputter out altogether.
Separate from these proceedings, however, is another film project from Annapurna Pictures that has both nothing and everything to do with Wonder Woman, the story of her real-life creator and the women who inspired him in conceptualizing her.
After a teaser released not long following the superhero flick, “Professor Marston & the Wonder Women” finally has its first trailer.
Double lives at risk
Annapurna Pictures released online the first official trailer of “Professor Marston & the Wonder Women” Tuesday, July 18. The film, which is being directed by Angela Robinson (“D.E.B.S.” and “Herbie: Fully Loaded”), stars Luke Evans (“Beauty and the Beast”), Rebecca Hall (“Iron Man 3”) and Bella Heathcote (“Fifty Shades Darker”). It follows the life of psychologist and comic book writer William Moulton Marston, who created Wonder Woman in 1941 under the pen name of Charles Moulton.
The trailer further expands on the scenes and dialogue featured in the first teaser of “Professor Marston” released on June 5.
These snippets are now joined by new scenes framed around an open inquest of Marston (Evans) regarding the subversive themes of the early “Wonder Woman” comics.
These are intercut with scenes depicting the origins and development of the polyamorous relationship between him, his wife Elizabeth (Hall) and his student at the university, Olive Byrne (Heathcote).
The trailer builds into a climax as the secret threesome try their utmost to keep their private lives of bondage, dominance and submission secret before they can be used to ruin them and their mutual creation to the public.
Feminism and domination-submission
Some kinky subjects do abound in Annapurna Pictures’ “Professor Marston & the Wonder Women” biopic, with the three-way relationship and the practice of sadomasochism bubbling underneath the feminist surface of the Wonder Woman character in her early days Special focus was also shone on both Mrs.
Marston and Olive Byrne, who loved each other as much as they loved Marston. It is no surprise considering that director Angela Robinson is a publicly-known lesbian who has tackled gay themes and topic in some of her past film and television works like “The L Word.”
“Professor Marston” is scheduled to premiere in cinemas on October 27.