Two ‘Aquaman’ Scripts Currently Being Written For the Same Movie – Why Bother?
While we still don’t know for sure if Aquaman is even in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, The Hollywood Reporter says Warner Bros. is going ahead with an Aquaman film — with two scripts.
How does that work? Warner Bros. has hired screenwriters Will Beall and Kurt Johnstad to both write a script for Aquaman. Whichever one they like better is the one they’re going to produce.
Think of it as throwing cinema spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks.
Warner Bros. supposedly has some sort of multi-movie scheme to combine all the DC characters under one umbrella via a series of interconnecting films. The problem is that no one seems to know what those films are, and no one seems to know what order they should be in.
Marvel Studios — which has had phenomenal success with its multi-film multiverse — has had Kevin Feige behind the scenes as head honcho, pulling the strings and working closely with creators to make sure both the writers and directors that are the best fit for their respective projects. Even where Feige has failed to agree with directors on projects (as with Edgar Wright on Ant-Man for example), at least Feige had a vision — or an opinion — of what he wanted the film to be.
Warner Bros. lacks in that area. I can’t imagine Kevin Feige pointing to two different Aquaman writers, saying, “Ready. Set. Go! Best script gets made into a movie!”
The two writers that are taking a shot at the new Aquaman movie are both familiar with Warner Bros. Beall wrote Gangster Squad, while Kurt Johnstad wrote 300 and 300: Rise of An Empire. Both writers will deal with Aquaman, a character that doesn’t get much credit in the superhero world.
Johnstad being given a crack at the Aquaman script is one of the few encouraging signs for Aquaman. 300 and 300: Rise of An Empire were both adaptations of graphic novels written by Frank Miller. If Johnstad adapts one of the better Aquaman stories from the comics with a violence/action level near or at the level of 300, then you might have something.
Aquaman was created in 1941 by Mort Weisinger and Paul Norris, and is considered one of DC Comics’ classic characters. Aquaman has been part of the Justice League since the team was started in 1960, and became even better known in the 1970s with the Super Friends cartoon. However, the animated show also was Aquaman’s Achilles heel. Fans saw him as too simple. He can talk to marine animals and breathe underwater. Big whoop.
That’s the level of thinking that prompted Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice director Zack Snyder to call into a Detroit area radio station last week and defend Aquaman, saying that the character could be “bad a**.”
Jason Momoa has been confirmed by Warner Bros. as being cast as Aquaman in the DC Cineverse, according to Variety. Momoa has been seen several times in the Detroit area over the last few weeks, which leads many to believe that Aquaman will actually first appear in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
[Images via Comic Walls]
