While we haven’t seen much from the DC Extended Universe on screen, everything has looked like they are trying to play catch up with their competitor’s at Marvel. With Batman v. Superman and Suicide Squad both set for next year, and Wonder Woman going into production, it looked like things were firing on all cylinders. However, there’s one DC character who looks to be running a bit behind schedule as apparently the standalone Aquaman film isn't as far a long as we thought.
While we knew that the movie’s director, James Wan, is currently busy with The Conjuring 2, it appeared that DC had been working on a script for several months before he came on board. Now, according to Aquaman producer Charles Roven, that’s not the case, and the screenplay is just beginning to be worked on. He told Collider:
We’re very early days. We’re just starting with the screenplay. He’s making The Conjuring 2 now, so he’s had his hand in the creation of let’s just call it a working document from which to write. But he’s directing that film [and] he’s got his hand ever so slightly in the development, but he’s really gonna throw himself into it after he finishes shooting Conjuring 2. And we’re planning on it being his film after Conjuring 2. He is a serious Aquaman fan."
We had news a year ago that DC hired two screenwriters to work on independent versions of the script. This was a full six months before Wan agreed to direct. Now, based on Coven's comments, it looks like they started from scratch so that Wan can also be part of the creative process of forming the story. This fits with what DC has been doing with Zack Snyder and David Ayer, so it’s not that surprising that they wanted Wan to help shape the film, we just never heard that the previous scripts had been tossed out, which appears to be the case. With the recent hiring of David Leslie Johnson a couple of weeks back, it seems that he’s the one who is "just starting with the screenplay." He and Wan are currently working together on the Conjuring sequel, so they have some experience to build on for Aquaman
The confirmation that Aquaman will be Wan’s next project means that things should be getting much clearer very soon. While Jason Momoa's solo film apparently hasn’t been a priority yet, that will be changing soon.
