The DCEU has been… a bit underwhelming to say the least. While some love the movies and that's awesome, it would seem the majority have not enjoyed the likes of Suicide Squad and Batman v Superman. Wonder Woman was the first movie that has been almost universally praised by critics and fans, it showed that DC may be turning things around and that puts hope in the eyes of viewers everywhere.
While we still have to see how Justice League turns out after its somewhat troubled development, Aquaman's solo film is the next movie that fans are really hopeful for. Not only does it have a talented director behind the camera but it has had little behind the scenes controversy leading many to believe that the things are going swimmingly.
Turns out that it's been very, very hard for director James Wan due to how complicated a movie set almost exclusively underwater is to film.
"It's a very technically challenging shoot to be on," Wan told The Hollywood Reporter as he was being shuttled to the film's Australia set. "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. "
Wan wanted to stress that CG is his biggest issue as he wants to film as much as possible in-camera without digital manipulation.
"That just makes it very difficult and time-sucking and time-challenging to do all of this," he continued. "So it's not an easy shoot — but hopefully it will pay off in spades down the line."
Wan also talked about 90s action star Dolph Lundgren who will play KIng Nereus. The actor hasn't been in many high profile films outside of The Expendables since his prime but James Wan had nothing but praise for the actor.
"When I was in the process of writing this character [King Nereus] in the world of Aquaman, a friend of mine, [director] Mike Mendez, was working with him on one of his films, and Mike was just raving about how great Dolph was," said Wan. "And I thought 'Oh my god, Dolph would be great for this role as well!' So it kinda came about from that roundabout way."
Wan went on to address the positivity surrounding the hype for this movie. Given the fact a lot of DC movies are now met with skepticism rather than excitement, this has been incredibly reassuring for the director who has previously primarily directed horror projects such as Saw and The Conjuring.
"Positivity in any way is always a good thing," he said with a laugh. "So yeah, I think it's great. I think when people are happy and excited, it helps the overall cause, you know?"
Aquaman will swim into theaters on December 21st, 2018.
