During our chat with Aquaman director, James Wan, he discussed the differences between shooting the film and others like Furious 7 and which movie he considered to be the most challenging.
During our interview the director, Wan went into the differences between the shooting of his films and the differences in terms of storytelling. According to the Aquaman director, there really isn’t any difference at all:
Uh, no difference in terms of storytelling. I say time and time again it kind of doesn’t matter what genre you make your film in or how big or small the budget of your film is, storytelling is storytelling. It’s all about creating interesting characters, characters that you care about, an interesting storyline and ultimately making a movie that engages with the audience on an emotional level. That works on all levels of storytelling, but obviously from a filmmaking level I had bigger toys to play with this one and bigger resources.
He was later asked which film was the most challenging for him. He gave an unsurprising but still somewhat saddening answer:
Emotionally it would have to be Furious 7.
The director did not get into why this was but the reason is not hard to guess. During a break in filming, Furious 7 star, Paul Walker, tragically died in a car accident. This lead to an emergency meeting between Wan and the producers to figure out just what to do with the film. The end result was the extensive use of body doubles for Walker and the use of CGI recreations of his face with the help of his brother. The end result was arguably the most emotionally charged of the franchise with a fine send-off for Walker’s character. And from the sound of things, it took a bit of a toll on the director as well.
What did you all think of Furious 7? Does it surprise you that it was the most emotionally challenging for the director? Let us know what you think in the comments below!
James Wan’s next film, Aquaman, stars Jason Momoa as Arthur Curry, Amber Heard as Mera, Willem Dafoe as Vulko, Patrick Wilson as Orm / Ocean Master, Dolph Lundgren as Nereus, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Black Manta, Nicole Kidman as Atlanna, Ludi Lin as Captain Murk, and Temuera Morrison as Tom Curry.
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 released in theaters on December 21, 2018.