Years ago, Chris Pine turned "Wonder Woman" down. Then Patty Jenkins came on board and suddenly without even much of a script he found himself under a kind of spell listening to her vision for the film over a hamburger in Los Angeles' Silverlake neighborhood. His no turned into a yes on the spot.

Jenkins, the 49-year-old " Wonder Woman 1984 " writer-director has in the past few years turned more than one "no" into a "yes." Along the way, she has not only cemented herself in the top echelon of big-budget filmmaking but has also forged new paths for her peers along the way with glass-ceiling sha...