LOS ANGELES (AP) - Patty Jenkins has more than the weight of the DC Universe on her shoulders. Not only is she bringing the iconic Wonder Woman character to the big screen for the first time, she’s the first woman to helm a major superhero film and one of very few in Hollywood history entrusted with a big-budget action feature.

She could almost use a hand from Wonder Woman to gracefully handle those demands. So Jenkins called Lynda Carter.

“She has been like a sister to us on this journey,” Jenkins said of the actress who famously played Wonder Woman on TV in the 1970s. “I wanted her to know: Lynda, we’re not the next generation doing their version of Wonder Woman. We were born of your Wonder Woman and it is a line, it’s a chain. We are a continuation of a vision and a dream of a great character.”

Jenkins grew up watching Carter’s “Wonder Woman” and has wanted to bring the character’s story to the big screen for more than a decade. Wonder Woman was created in 1941, yet this is the character’s first solo theatrical adventure.

It opens Friday facing lofty expectations from moviegoers and Warner Bros., which hopes it will boost a DC world dimmed by “Batman v Superman” in time for November’s “Justice League.”

Jenkins wants the film to inspire audiences as much as Carter and the TV show did. And Carter wants the same.

“Well I think it’s time,” the 65-year-old entertainer said. “It’s now going onto a new generation of people and I’m thrilled.”

The film tells the origin story of comic books’ Amazonian princess Diana, played by Gal Gadot, and why she left the idyllic island of Themyscira to fight for justice among humans. Chris Pine plays Steve Trevor, the charming spy who lures Diana to London, where she discovers her superpowers.

Jenkins said Carter told her that fans still approach her to talk about “Wonder Woman,” and she wished the same kinds of connections for the director.

“What a beautiful, beautiful thing,” Jenkins said. “We aspire to be as graceful and wonderful as she has been as the representative of Wonder Woman.”

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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen at www.twitter.com/APSandy .

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