Director Patty Jenkins is drawing parallels between her vision of Wonder Woman and her fellow DC Comics icon Superman. This week the long wait for a live-action feature version of Wonder Woman will finally come to an end, more than 40 years after Lynda Carter played the Amazon warrior princess in the classic TV series from 1975-79. Of course, several other DC superhero legends have had their turn at movie greatness either in lead or supporting roles since then — most notably Batman — but it was Superman in the guise of Christopher Reeve that kicked it all off in 1978.

For her big screen interpretation of Wonder Woman, with Gal Gadot starring in the title role, Jenkins tell the LA Times that it was never her intention to take the character in a direction that fans were familiar with — but to stay with the basic fundamentals of the character because of her inherent goodness, akin to the Man of Steel. Jenkins says:

“[There’s] been a fear that you needed to go harder in some direction to make [Wonder Woman] interesting. And I was always confused by it. You could go out on Halloween, even now, 75 years later, and there's a good chunk of people dressed up as Wonder Woman. She's pretty simple. She is like the parallel of Superman. She's good, she means well, she's kind, she's loving.”

Jenkins has clearly made it known during the making of her film that she's a big fan of Superman, and she even includes an homage (among other tributes) to Richard Donner’s Superman where Clark Kent (Christopher Reeve) protects Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) from a street mugger. Jenkins says her love for Donner's origins film was so strong, in fact, that it led to a major career move:

“ ‘Superman I’ had been a favorite movie of mine, even when I was at Cooper Union, which is a very fine-arts school. People were painting a portrait of the career that I could have as an indie New York filmmaker. The only thing that stood in my way from staying in New York — because I loved New York and I wanted to stay — was something more that I wanted to do that was inspired by ‘Superman.’ One day I would love to sing a song to the world, to bring something into the world that is beautiful in that sort of way.”

And so far, it appears that everyone is not only listening to her cinematic song, but loving what they hear. Following and overwhelming positive first reaction to the film and favorable critics' buzz, reviews of Wonder Woman sing high praises for the origins movie. Most importantly, the film has impressed Carter, who called Wonder Woman a "wonderful movie" after attending the premiere.

More: Our Wonder Woman Movie Review

From Warner Bros. Pictures and DC Entertainment comes the epic action adventure starring Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Connie Nielsen and Robin Wright, directed by Patty Jenkins.

Before she was Wonder Woman, she was Diana, princess of the Amazons, trained to be an unconquerable warrior. Raised on a sheltered island paradise, when an American pilot crashes on their shores and tells of a massive conflict raging in the outside world, Diana leaves her home, convinced she can stop the threat. Fighting alongside man in a war to end all wars, Diana will discover her full powers…and her true destiny.

Source: LA Times