CW Holding a Slot for 'Wonder Woman' Prequel 'Amazon' This Pilot Season

Courtesy of Everett Collection

Lynda Carter in the 1970s "Wonder Woman" TV series

The CW still has hope for Wonder Woman prequel Amazon this pilot season.

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Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that the project isn't completely off the table. The network, sources say, wasn't happy with the script and is awaiting a final version from writer Allan Heinberg (Grey's Anatomy). The CW, which already has picked up eight pilots this season (on par with last year), is still holding a slot open for Amazon, with the project still in contention for fall 2013-14, midseason or beyond. 

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The drama is described as an origin story about Wonder Woman's alter ego, Diana of Themyscira, and focuses on the character as a budding hero. The project had strong buzz going into pilot season, with the network already eyeing potential leads.

Talking to reporters in January at the Television Critics Association's winter press tour, CW president Mark Pedowitz said his development team was waiting to see the script and was "busy casting Diana."

"Hopefully the script works the way we want," Pedowitz told THR, noting that the origin story of Diana Prince would be set in the present day -- instead of the character's original World War II-era origin -- with the network looking at both new and established actresses for the part. Pedowitz suggested that his team would continue to explore other DC properties as well.

Wonder Woman has had a string of bad luck at the broadcast networks. David E. Kelley tried unsuccessfully to bring the franchise to NBC in 2011 with Friday Night Lights' Adrianne Palicki attached. Despite landing a pilot order, NBC ultimately passed on the drama that featured Diana as a businesswoman/shy woman.

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"As well crafted and contemporized as [the Kelley pilot] was, it was a big and radical shift for viewers to embrace this new idea -- and that may, to some degree, have had to do with why it didn’t make it," Warner Bros. TV president Peter Roth told THR in 2011, noting at the time that the character's future at another network was to be determined.

The CW's effort marked the latest in a long line of big- and small-screen takes on the famed heroine, following the 1975-79 TV series starring Lynda Carter. In 2005, Warner Bros. announced Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) would write and direct a film adaptation, which never materialized.

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The comics, meanwhile, continue to reboot the hero, most recently connecting her romantically with Superman after a short-lived costume change that evolved Wonder Woman's costume from a sexy one-piece to include pants.

Email: Lesley.Goldberg@thr.com; Twitter: @Snoodit