Following the disastrous critical reception to “Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice,” and the box office results which didn’t hit the mark Warner Bros. was hoping for, chatter emerged that James Wan was beginning to get cold feet about directing “Aquaman.” Essentially, the talk was that Wan didn’t want to step into a franchise that was damaged goods, and he had his own successful enterprises elsewhere he could pivot toward. The director himself shut that talk down, but one has to wonder if the development process for the movie at least did’t leave him feeling somewhat concerned.
One of the more questionable approaches Warner Bros. has taken with the superhero movie process is assigning multiple writers to each project, writing in competition with each other, and then choosing the best one to go forward with. It gives the impression that the studio doesn’t have a strong vision for what they want, and from a writer’s perspective, I can’t imagine that scenario inspires you to do your best work. All that aside, WB has figured out who should write “Aquaman.”
THR reports that Will Beall (“Gangster Squad“) has landed the gig. Don’t forget he was up for writing “Justice League” waaaaay back when (and a completely different version no doubt). Along with Kurt Johnstad (“30o“) and David Leslie Johnson (who took his pen to the project when Wan became attached), Beall was on one of those banging out a script in that competitive framework. None of their screenplays were chosen, and instead, Wan and DC Films honcho Geoff Johns came up with the story, and now Beall has been hired to write the script based on that.
There will likely be some more “Aquaman” news tomorrow at San Diego Comic Con. The film opens on July 27, 2018.