James Wan May Direct Aquaman

Posted by on April 10th, 2015   Filed under: Action, Books/Comics, Rumours
Source: THR

jameswanaquaman

Although James Wan’s name is still mostly tied to his various horror franchises, it is pretty clear that Furious 7 will be his ticket to bigger things. Now that Furious 7 has achieved one of the biggest opening weekends of all time, his career opportunities are continuing to multiply. Word on the street is that Wan may be close to signing on to direct one of the upcoming DC Universe movies, specifically Aquaman. This coincides with a hint that was dropped by New Line president Toby Emmerich last year that Wan would direct “an important movie for New Line and Warner Bros or DC.” Hey, if anyone can get bros out to see an Aquaman movie, surely it is the guy who just directed Furious 7, right?

According to THR, James Wan is the current frontrunner to direct Aquaman starring Jason Momoa for Warner Brothers. No offer has been made as of yet, but preliminary talks are said to be underway. Two different Aquaman scripts have been written by Will Beall (Gangster Squad) and Kurt Johnstad (300: Rise of an Empire, Act of Valor), but it is unclear which one the movie will be based on (perhaps a hybrid of both).

A few other directors were previously rumoured for this project including Jeff Nichols (Mud) and Noam Murro (300: Rise of an Empire) but it is unclear if they are still possibilities. Aquaman already has a release date of July 27th, 2018 which is a few years away, but Wan may have a couple of other projects on his plate before he can tackle the film. He is attached to direct The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Poltergeist, which will go before cameras this fall, and he also has an option to direct Fast & Furious 8 for Universal. However, the fact that he is currently circling this project could be a strong indicator that he will not return for the next Fast & Furious flick. Do you think James Wan is a solid choice to direct Aquaman?



  • Maik

    Ok, I have to adress this editorializing: “..that Furious 7 will be his ticket to bigger things.” If by bigger you mean bigger marketing, bigger PR, bigger studio interference, bigger market research, bigger product placement, bigger movie-making-by-commitee etc. then I guess you´re right.
    I think it´s really screwed up that today we are thinking that when an artist is selling out, it means he is moving up. Directing Furious 7 or Aquaman is basically eliminating any kind of creative freedom from the director´s position, delegating him to a form of factory-worker following orders, producing vapid corporate junk that is devoid of any kind of artistic touch.

  • Sean

    It’s funny that you called that statement “editorializing” because originally I had written “bigger (but not necessarily better) things” and I changed it because I thought it sounded too snarky. But I agree with you for the most part. The one good thing about doing massive movies like this is that it generally gives you more freedom to get your passion projects made.

  • Maik

    I guess I like the snarky Sean then~
    And you are right with your last statement.
    Hopefully Wan learned from the terrible studio intereference he encountered on “Dead Silence” and in the future will use his box office power for personal passion projects.
    I also think that his independent-movies for Jason Blum(who offers directors creative freedom on a low production budget) were way more interesting than a similar movie he did for New Line/Warner Bros.which cost 3-12times as much in addition to a huge PR-budget, but had all the signs of corporate generefication.

  • ECONOMYpolitica

    All these movies sound like crap. Furious 6 was terrible. I’m embarrassed I saw it.

  • MisterQuigley

    The awfulness of Furious Infinity aside Sean, would like to hear your guys take on the Game Of Thrones leak. Reed’s too.