‘Wuthering Heights’ Director Emerald Fennell Finally Explains What Made Her Canceled ‘Zatanna’ Movie So “Demented” – “I Was A Woman In The Middle Of A Nervous Breakdown”
Director Emerald Fennell, who has astonished in the past with rather weird creative choices in films such as Saltburn and bizarre pitches for things like Jurassic Park, is clarifying what she meant when she called her Zatanna script “demented.” At one time, she was attached to a film adaptation featuring the Mistress of Magic, produced by JJ Abrams, and connected to his aborted Justice League Dark pantheon.
Talking with Josh Horowitz on Happy Sad Confused, Fennell confessed that the headspace she was in while writing and developing the film was ultimately what hurt her chances of making the magic happen. “I think it was demented because I was probably going through it at the time,” she said. “I just finished Promising Young Woman, and there was this huge thing in this world that I’d never operated in.”
She continued, “I was like, ‘Okay, how do I make the version of a superhero movie that I would connect to emotionally?’ [I was a] woman in the middle of a nervous breakdown. So it’s a script reflective of a woman in the middle of a nervous breakdown, I would say. I suppose it just meant that it was probably too far away from the genre. It was really dark. I haven’t read it for a really long time because I found it really difficult.”
Saying that, Fennell wondered if she could see the script – and the “dark” insanity she alleges is within it – with different eyes now that several years have passed, as she is also grateful to Abrams for taking a swing with her approach. “I love JJ so much, and he took a chance on offering me to do it, and I really wanted to deliver something amazing for them, and I always felt like I hadn’t quite delivered the thing that they wanted,” she recalled.
Abrams signed a massive first-look deal with Warner Bros. before Discovery, and David Zaslav, took over. Despite rumors that he might helm a Superman or Justice League movie, the Force Awakens director staked his claim on Justice League Dark characters, including Zatanna, Swamp Thing, Madame Xanadu, and Deadman. However, years passed, and he had nothing to show for his possessiveness of these characters.
DC Studios, under James Gunn and Peter Safran, may be interested in a Zatanna project internally, but there is no sign of that to date. Nor is there any hint they have reached out to Fennell in any capacity. They can’t even get wind in the sails of James Mangold’s Swamp Thing project, which may be sunk for good by the Logan filmmaker’s new Paramount deal.
Justice League Dark has been a Herculean labor at Warner Bros. for years. Guillermo Del Toro couldn’t get his film, which incorporated Swampy and Deadman, off the ground and has recently closed the door on the opportunity. Fennell, meanwhile, is busy corrupting the work of Emily Brontë with her liberal interpretation of Wuthering Heights that’s now in theaters.
NEXT: James Mangold’s New Paramount Deal Could Impact DC’s ‘Swamp Thing’
