'Wonder Woman' gets new director days after Michelle MacLaren's departure

HOLLYWOOD, April 16 (UPI) -- Director Patty Jenkins is set to take the reigns of recently orphaned "Wonder Woman" film after original director Michell MacLaren left Monday, blaming "creative differences" last week.

The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Warner Bros. closed a deal with Jenkins, 43, who will continue working on the project in hopes of meeting its proposed 2017 deadline.

Jenkins is a TV filmmaker who got her start making movies. She directed the 2003 film Monster before working on episodes of Arrested Development, Entourage, The Killing, and Betrayal.

By still having a female director on the payroll, Warner Bros. will avoid accusations of gender bias against female directors. Jenkins, if she stays with the project, will become the first female director of a DC superhero film. "By hiring Jenkins, the studio is saying they are not afraid of filmmakers with unique visions," says Forbes contributor Mark Hughes. "It's merely a question of fitting those visions together with what the studio needs."

The director previously left Marvel Studios for the same reason MacLaren left Warner Bros. —"creative differences"—concerning the second "Thor" film she was meant to lead. Will Jenkins' new partnership with DC fare better?