It has already been an incredibly rough week for DC’s expanded universe of movies, and it may be getting worse faster than they can turn things around. Seth Grahame-Smith stepped down as the director of the big-screen The Flash adaptation citing creative differences. Now rumors are swirling that James Wan may follow in Grahame-Smith’s footsteps and quit the production of Aquaman.
Aquaman hasn’t had the smoothest production up until this point, what with the competing scripts and last minute castings and all, so this would just be another issue to add to the list. As /Film tells it, things aren’t looking great:
…James Wan is “feeling tremendous amounts of trepidation” about directing Aquaman, which he’s been attached to since last summer. Apparently Wan is in the midst of figuring out if he really wants to stay on board the comic book blockbuster featuring Jason Momoa in the lead role.
That article cites the fact that Wan has already dealt with one stressful blockbuster film shoot in recent years with the rollercoaster that was filming Fast 7 taking a toll on the director. While that would make sense as a reason Wan may not want to stick around, there’s also no easy way for Warner Bros. to write this off as a coincidence since it is coming on the heels of another high-profile film adaptation losing its director. The optics are terrible no matter what, and with Batman v. Superman‘s slightly underwhelming box office performance and critical reviews, the successful expansion of DC’s cinematic universe relies on at least one of The Flash or Aquaman to be a hit with both reviewers and fans alike.
It would be a real shame if Wan does end up departing the production, seeing as his stated hopes to do something different and “have fun” with Aquaman were such a breath of fresh air after the dour and depressing slog of BvS. If he leaves, this movie could end up resembling a horror show worse than Wan’s The Conjuring series.
(via /Film)
