While Wonder Woman's success is undoubtedly due to its incredible female protagonist, talented female star, and dynamic female director, there's no denying that it also featured one of the best performances of Chris Pine's career. So news that Pine and Patty Jenkins are re-teaming for a television series, as reported by Variety, is a very welcome surprise. Gal Gadot's charming male co-star and the Wonder Woman director will be reunited on the set of the upcoming TNT drama One Day She'll Darken, which is based on the autobiography of the same name by Fauna Hodel.
Here's the plot summary, per Variety:
"[The upcoming show] tells the story of Hodel, who was given away by her teenage birth mother to a black restroom attendant in a Nevada casino in 1949. As Hodel begins to investigate the secrets to her past, she follows a sinister trail that swirls ever closer to an infamous Hollywood gynecologist, Dr. George Hodel, a man involved in the darkest Hollywood debauchery, the spider in the web around the legendary 'Black Dahlia' murder of Elizabeth Short in Los Angeles in 1947."
While the casting for Hodel herself has yet to be announced, Pine will reportedly be playing Jay Singletary, "a former Marine-turned-hack reporter and paparazzo. Jay was disgraced over his story about Hodel years prior, but now he sees a glimmer of redemption," according to Variety.
This project marks something of a departure for Pine, in that it will be his first-ever starring role on television. Although he's guest starred on shows like ER, CSI: Miami, and Six Feet Under in the past — in addition to a recurring role on Netflix's recent revival Wet Hot American Summer: First Day Of Camp — the actor has never headlined an ongoing series before. A move from the big to the small screen used to mean a celebrity's star was waning; in our current era of peak TV, it means quite the opposite.
Starting around the time HBO attracted Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson to True Detective, television shows (especially limited series or shows with smaller episode counts) became the go-to for some of Hollywood's biggest names. And if True Detective was the beginning of the so-called "McConnaissance," then we can start acknowledging the fact that we're in the middle of a surprising, if not unwelcome, Chris Pine-aissance.
It's weird to say about someone who's been acting in feature films for well over a decade and even headlined his own blockbuster franchise (the rebooted Star Trek films), but his performance as Steve Trevor in Wonder Woman feels like something of a breakout role. Perhaps it's because of the refreshing ways in which the film subverts expectations for male actors in comic book movies and the gender dynamics of an action hero's love interest, but it feels like audiences are getting to see Pine in a new light.
And judging by the actor's upcoming credits, that new light won't be fading anytime soon. Aside from One Day She'll Darken, Pine will also be seen in the near future in Netflix's Wet Hot American Summer continuation Ten Years Later, the Netflix original film Outlaw King (which reunites him with his Hell Or High Water director David Mackenzie), and the Disney adaptation of A Wrinkle In Time — yet another blockbuster movie that pairs Pine with an acclaimed female director, this time Selma's Ava DuVernay.
Unlike Pine, One Day I'll Darken — which Jenkins will helm the first episode of, and possibly more — isn't a first for the filmmaker. In between directing Charlize Theron to an Academy Award in 2003's Monster and shattering box office records with Wonder Woman, Jenkins has spent her time directing episodes of TV shows like Arrested Development, Entourage, The Killing, and Betrayal. But given how she brought out the best of Pine in Wonder Woman, the news that they're teaming up again could be the beginning of Hollywood's next great director/actor partnership.
Move over, Marty and Leo — there's a new dynamic duo in town. And fans won't want to miss what they come up with next.
