James Wan Ready To Focus On ‘Aquaman’; Not Just “Director For Hire”

James Wan has begun talking a lot more about his upcoming DC underwater flick Aquaman. Speaking to Collider at the TCA’s, the director has revealed even more information about his instalment in the DCEU.

“Up until recently, I’ve just been super busy wrapping up all things The Conjuring 2 related, and then promoting Lights Out. Now that that’s out of the way, I can finally focus on everything Aquaman related. It’s been good. It’s been really creatively diving myself – no pun intended – into the world of Aquaman and taking that on board, and seeing the world that Aquaman is now a part of, with Justice League coming up, and taking that and respecting that world that everyone has collectively created. It’s about honoring that world, but also, at the same time, making my own movie, as well. That’s very important for me.”

So, it looks like Wan is now ready to spend all his time and effort on Aquaman, which he wants to make his ‘own movie’. This relates to the fact that he’s been working with head of DC films Geoff Johns to hash out the story for his movie. Wan spoke about working on his own movie within a larger cinematic universe.

“I’m not a director for hire. I’ve really only done one director for hire job, and that was Fast and Furious 7. If I don’t have a hand in creating it, then I’m not interested. I’ve been very fortunate, as a filmmaker, that a lot of things that I have created have gone on to be successful, and I take a lot of pride in that. They are giving me a lot of leeway to create and craft my story, and it’s been a blast working with Geoff Johns to craft the story and the world, and seeing how it all ties back into what Zack [Snyder] is doing, as well.”

One worry some DC fans might have about Aquaman is that it could end up too tonally dark, especially considering Wan’s background as a horror director. However, the director behind The Conjuring says there is no need to fear.

“Here’s the thing that people are getting confused, just because you have scary stories or monsters doesn’t mean that it’s tonally dark. Look at Guillermo del Toro, he makes monsters all the time, but his stuff is fun. Tim Burton does it as well. It’s about how you do it.”

It also looks like Wan’s not bothered about poor critical reception to both Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad, or he’s at least doing his best to ignore it.

“I just try to focus on mine, I try to focus on the positive. I focus on what I think I can create the best character, create the best story and make the best movie. That’s all you can do. I try to listen to what’s going on around me, and I think it’ important but at the end of the day, I have to be the one to make those decisions.”

Despite being scheduled for release on July 27th 2018, don’t necessarily expect Aquaman to hit theatres on that date. One condition of Wan signing on to direct the movie is that he is giving the time he needs to make what he believes to be the best film he can put together.

“There’s is a timetable of some sort, but I’ve made it pretty clear that if I were to get involved in this that I need the correct amount of time to do this right. That’s all I’ll say.”

This is particularly good news after reports that David Ayer was reportedly rushed when putting together Suicide Squad, which might have led to some of the problems with the movie.

Aquaman is scheduled for release on July 27th 2018, and you can next see Jason Momoa as the character in Zach Snyder’s Justice League next year.

Source: Collider

Sam Easton

Sam Easton

Young, aspiring screenwriter. Part time student, full time geek. Based in the UK.