Director James Wan has had a notable career in film working on many succesful projects which run from horror movies (Saw, Insidious, The Conjuring) to world-renowned franchises ( The Fast and The Furious series) but now he faces the daunting task of bringing one of DC’s most iconic characters to the big screen in Aquaman.
Aquaman, starring Jason Mamoa alongside and all-star cast, is currently in production in Australia in one of the more complex and intricate shoots you’ll see in this current generation of films. Traditionally, it is very difficult to shoot scenes on or near water but Aquaman has the additional challenge of including many scenes that take place below water. James Wan spoke about this in a recent interview with Hollywood Reporter. He stated:
“It’s a very technically challenging shoot to be on…Working with water, and even the dry-for-wet sequences are very complex. … Our equivalent of two people sitting around chatting in the underwater world is super complicated. You have to think about CG with the hair, and how their clothing moves, how are they floating, what kind of rig we put them on and all that stuff.”
One can admire Wan for his dedication to his craft and to fans of the Aquaman series  as he continues to strive for authenticity rather taking easier routes and not cutting corners during production. One of the most critical aspects of this production comes in Wan’s desire to avoid having to use CGI except only when necessary and try to shoot things on set with real actors. He continued:
That just makes it very difficult and time-sucking and time-challenging to do all of this. So it’s not an easy shoot — but hopefully it will pay off in spades down the line.”
This approach to film making can only serve to embolden fans that are eagerly awaiting for this next addition to the DCEU. I for one am looking very much to seeing how all this pays-off next year.
Aquaman will be released in 2018
Image courtesy of batman-news.com
