Last Friday, we learned that Seth Grahame-Smith had chosen to exit the Warner Brothers movie ‘The Flash’ over creative differences and now comes word that James Wan, who was slated to direct the ‘Aquaman’ movie, may follow suit. Both films were set to premier in 2018 as part of WB’s DC Expended Universe, but that entire situation may not have worked out according to plan.
Not much is know about why Grahame-Smith exited ‘The Flash’ beyond the requisite “creative differences.”
But it is known that Wan had many issues making ‘Furious 7’ and that was without the fact that one of the film’s stars, Paul Walker died during filming. Wan made his name on lower-budget horror flicks, like ‘Saw’, ‘Insidious’ and ‘The Conjuring’. Is it possible, that like Josh Trank, who directed the acclaimed low-budget hit ‘Chronicle’ before crashing and burning on the tentpole franchise movie ‘Fantastic Four’ last year, Wan isn’t quite ready to deal with the bureaucracy of a major studio release?
Possibly, as Wan already has two movies that are more in his wheelhouse due this year, ‘The Conjuring 2’ and ‘Light’s Out’ (which he produced). Does he need the headache of such a high profile movie? Rumor has it, no. He may walk away from this film, just as Grahame-Smith did.
And of course, these shufflings come a month after the release of cornerstone ‘Batman V Superman’, which made a lot of money at the box office– although not as much as was expected– and was largely panned by critics and viewers.
‘BvS’ director Zack Snyder was already locked in to direct ‘Justice League – Part One’ which was scheduled to begin filming just after ‘Batman V Superman’ premiered in theaters, so that WB was powerless to change course. Had they replaced Snyder at this point, it would have been an admission of defeat and ‘BvS’ could have easily made even less money than it did.
Perhaps this was finagling on Snyder’s part. Regardless of ‘BvS”s reception, he’s still locked in to direct ‘Justice League – Part One’. But that hasn’t come without a price, as it is heavily rumored that WB execs in Burbank and Snyder, who is filming in London, have broken down into huge fights over the direction of this major release.
So what does Wan have to say about these reports? Here’s his response:
— James Wan (@creepypuppet) May 2, 2016
Just resurfaced from been buried in a foxhole for the last two weeks, wrapping up all things #conjuring2. You guys are killing me. — James Wan (@creepypuppet) May 2, 2016
So it seems to appear Wan has debunked this rumor.
What do you think? Is Wan staying or leaving? Is he the right fit for ‘Aquaman’? Or do you think another director would be better at guiding this film?
Sources: Birth Movies Death, Twitter
Jason is THE BIGGEST Aquaman fan… but this movie? May wait til Redbox. Follow him on Twitter.
