It looks like James Wan prefers to deal with water over speed as he was originally asked to create ‘The Flash’ live-action film and passed on it to bring us ‘Aquaman‘ instead. Had things worked out differently it makes you wonder if we’d be having an opening weekend for Ezra Miller in ‘The Flash’ right now instead of the Jason Momoa headlining ‘Aquaman.’
How this all came to be is pretty fascinating. As Wan tells it:
“Having made “The Conjuring,” I was part of the Warner Bros. family, and I knew they were doing their DC thing. I spoke with Kevin Tsujihara [the Warner Bros. chairman and chief executive] at a premiere, and I said, “I’m interested in the properties that you have at DC.” A few months later, I was in a general meeting with DC, and they floated two properties that didn’t have filmmakers on board: the Flash and Aquaman.”
While ‘The Flash’ is a more respected character for comic fans and audiences in general over that guy who just talks to fish, it was the ability to do new things which drew Wan to the project:
“I felt the Flash had been done before. It had been on TV twice at that point. The one that had not been done was Aquaman. I realized, wow, his character resides in this crazy, big world, and I could do something very interesting with it. I look up to people like Spielberg, Cameron, Lucas, John Carpenter. I’m a fan of genre filmmaking, naturally. So I thought I could make “Aquaman” a genre film, meaning a horror monster movie. DC basically said, yes, you can make Aquaman versus sea monsters if that’s what you want.”
As a master of horror, I love the idea that he was able to mix some of his specialized talents into the film while also bringing us Momoa’s take on Aquaman that mixes in a bit of dry and sarcastic humor into the world. As to expanding the world visually, Wan added:
“There really aren’t a lot of visual cues from existing films to pull from. That was exciting for me because I get to create a new world. In terms of the technicality of it: It was a pain. The actors would be suited up in their costumes, and placed inside these really awkward, uncomfortable rigs. Then visual effects would come in and add the flowing hair, the floating costumes, and capes, and then paint in the entire world. A simple scene of two people talking underwater would just take days and days to shoot.”
Are you glad that James Wan ended up making ‘Aquaman’ instead of ‘The Flash’? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
From Warner Bros. Pictures and director James Wan comes an action-packed adventure that spans the vast, visually breathtaking underwater world of the seven seas, “Aquaman,” starring Jason Momoa in the title role. The film reveals the origin story of half-human, half-Atlantean Arthur Curry and takes him on the journey of his lifetime—one that will not only force him to face who he really is but to discover if he is worthy of who he was born to be… a king.
‘Aquaman’ will be swimming into your local theaters on December 21st, 2018!
Source: The New York Times.