Warner Bros will be hoping the third time is truly the charm for James Wan tentpole flick Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom.
It’s been revealed over at The Hollywood Reporter that James Wan’s upcoming superhero flick, Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom, has undergone three rounds of reshoots. Even by modern standards, where it’s common for tentpole movies to go through reshoots, that’s still unprecedented.
It should be pointed out that whilst reshoots (especially multiple ones) can hint that the film is in something of a state, the outlet is reporting that it has as much to do with the continual changes of direction at Warner Bros as anything else. After all, the development of Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom was kicked off when Walter Hamada was in charge of DC Films, in the wake of the first film’s success (it still stands as the highest-grossing DCEU film with $1.1b).
Since then though, we’ve seen Warner Bros merge with Discovery, which led to Hamada’s exit. Then, new Warners film bosses Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy got involved, with Abdy in particular reportedly taking a key role in the film’s creative direction through two rounds of reshoots. That didn’t work out too well apparently, with the film then testing lower with audiences than it had originally. Finally, James Gunn would come in to oversee Warners’ DC properties and another round of reshoots ensued.
Story clarity is said to be an issue, as are Batman cameos from Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton, with the Warners top brass unsure which Dark Knight they wanted to feature in the movie. Either way, following the dismal critical performance of The Flash, David Zaslav is going to want the Aquaman sequel to find some kind of audience. Another poor tentpole performer will only add to the pressure he is under to start generating hits.
Even if this film was put into production before his time, the way the current Warner Bros regime has handled marketing and public relations for the DC movies under his watch leaves something to be desired. Plus, given the current woes besieging the blockbuster landscape, there might be some concern about this film’s performance when it eventually does release. We’ll bring you more on this one as we hear it ahead of its December release date.
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