After making incredible films like Bronson, the Pusher trilogy, and Valhalla Rising, Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn makes his American debut with Drive, an excellent noir story due in September.  A verbose and engaging speaker always worth listening to and seemingly always willing to talk, Refn has been saying for over a year that he'd like to take a crack at a Wonder Woman feature, and also that he thinks Christina Hendricks, who plays the formidable Joan on AMC's Mad Men and appears in Drive, would be ideal casting for the Amazonian superheroine. 

There's no offer from Warner Bros and no current plans for Wonder Woman, but Refn has now said, in fairly offhanded fashion, that if he makes a profitable Logan's Run remake for the studio, then he could very well have his way with the Diana of Themyscira, in a purely creative sense.

To simply summarize the story of Drive is to entirely miss so much of what makes the film special.  We've all seen films involving getaway drivers before, so when you hear that Ryan Gosling plays a stuntdriver/mechanic/aspiring racer who occasionally moonlights as a wheelman and inevitably gets into a dangerous situation, you're not liable to be terrible impressed.  The film is executed with incredible style, featuring moments that are pretty much iconic and surprisingly soulful characters.  Like the international poster before it, a new domestic poster for the film puts Gosling's unnamed hero front and center, right where he's supposed to be.  And this time he's even behind the wheel, toying with his signature toothpick.

Nicolas Winding Refn certainly can make a cinematic statement. His widely acclaimed Pusher Trilogy put him on the map, but it is his recent work with Bronson and his latest, Valhalla Rising that have sent Hollywood knocking.

Gritty, dark and poetic, his films are more than just action, they are loaded with character and sometimes feel like a grim yet loving tribute to cinema. Rich with color and stylized with care, he is able to give character to wherever his actors seem to be.