It looks spectacular and horrible at the same time!

At first I thought it was an adaptation of The Star Rover.

As a female writing female leads, I find this post utterly discouraging. Especially since this clip does nothing for me as a viewer. So the female leads are only profitable if they are children relying on men or dressed as whores? Granted, I'm not a fantasy fan, but really???

@donna: Here are some titles from 2010 that featured female leads: Alice in Wonderland, Twilight Saga: Eclipse, Tangled, True Grit, Salt, Date Night, Sex and the City 2, Eat, Pray, Love, Black Swan. All ended up making money with the exception of - perhaps SATC2 (depending upon the gross profit participation deals of the actors).

Just write a great story with great roles. If you're passionate about the project and your passion shines through, a great script will supersede any sort of conventional wisdom.

Of course you're right, Scott. The post simply caught me off guard with it's tone, I think. Or, perhaps, it was the women in the clip getting the short end of the skirt from the costume director!

Sounds to me like Snyder is pre-emtively blaming the audience in case the movie fails. Setting aside gender, the lead also isn't *famous*. And frankly, the movie doesn't look like it would reach a mass audience with a famous male lead. It's strange, video game-tinged high fantasy concept, not to mention it doesn't look particularly good.

Read between the lines.

He said that these heroines do NOT turn off men, which is contrary to conventional wisdom in Hollywood.

He says, "it's a challenge economically to find an audience for these movies..."

What he is really talking about are investors. The money. This has ZERO to do with story. This is the business face of the show.

The grim reality for a female protagonist is that there is currently only one female star (Angellina Jolie) that has the star power to open a summer blockbuster. We're talking 100 million dollar+ movies here. Investors don't like to take unnecessary risks. And for whatever reason -- women leads in blockbuster roles are perceived as not as secure of an investment as men.

Don't get me started on some of the biggest action franchises having some of the screens all time strongest leads (LEADS! They happen to be women, but that's almost besides the point). ALIEN, TERMINATOR, almost anything Tarantino writes. Robert Rodriquez is a fan too.

It's a sad state of affairs that good story is secondary to marketing trends -- but what can you do?

Notice Zach Snyder didn't break with a blockbuster featuring strong female leads. He broke in with Gerar Butler screaming "THIS IS SPARTA!" and rip-abbed men hiding behind gleaming shields.

This is a strange and very Hollywood problem. Interestingly, you don't see this in comicbooks at all.

I write this -- not to be a nay-sayer. But having continually run head first into the brick wall that is "I like it, but could the protagonist be a man?"

Posts like these interest me because I've always been a guy that enjoys a strong female protagonist. And though, I can't ever imagine truly understanding Donna's perspective (how could I, really?), I still get it.

It's a shame that it seems a female protagonist has to be a certain way to attract a male audience. Maybe that's now how it has to be, but it is how it is written a lot of the time.

That being said, Scott is right. My favorite film of the year was Black Swan and you couldn't get less manly than that in 2010 (ballet, dancing, female protagonist. Yea, about 1% of my friends wanted to see that with me). But, the story was great and that's what matters first.

I have to admit that having never seen the original True Grit or read the book - and still having not seen the Coen remake - I didn't know the young girl was the protagonist until blogs like this told me so. Marketing has its ways.