Even though it may seem that Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has been sitting on a hard disc somewhere, frequent reports make it clear that the highly anticipated sequel is actually going through major overhauls. When the time finally comes to check it on the big screen, the new adventure of the DC subaquatic superhero will probably look nothing like its first version. A new report from THR suggests that one of the most recent changes was completely nixing any Ben Affleck's Batman participation in the movie.
More than a year and a half after filming first wrapped on Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, a third round of reshoots have recently been completed.
While reshoots have become common in big-budget movies like
this one, a third round is said to be 'unprecedented' for a movie this size,
according to THR.
The most recent round of reshoots took place in New Zealand
in mid-June, and involved Jason Momoa (Aquaman) and Patrick Wilson (King Orm).
There is no indication yet if Amber Heard was part of the
reshoots, which comes just days after she broke her silence about returning to
play Queen Mera.
Warner Bros. has not yet shifted the December 20 release
date - a year past its originally slated date of December 16, 2022, with the
movie having spanned three separate regimes at Warner Bros. and DC Studios,
much like The Flash.
Warner Bros. film boss Toby Emmerich and DC Films head
Walter Hamada gave the sequel the green light, following 2018's Aquaman which
grossed $335.1 million domestic and $1.148 billion worldwide.
Production had wrapped under Aquaman director James Wan in
January 2022, though that summer, both Emmerich and Hamada were removed from
their positions, due to the Warner Bros. Discovery merger.
While the timing on the first two rounds of the reshoots
were not clear, the report claims that the first two rounds took place between
the summer of 2022 and early 2023.
The studio also held several test screenings for the sequel
which were described as, 'uninspiring,' and after one screening, new WB film
bosses Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy became involved.
Both De Luca and Abdy were pulling double-duty as well,
running both Warner Bros. Pictures AND DC Films while new WB/Discovery CEO
David Zaslav could find a new head for DC.
Abdy was said to have become much more involved in the fall
of 2023, getting heavily involved in the editing of one cut, though when that
version was test screened, it scored even lower than the cut that got her
involved in the first place.
Sources contended that 'story clarity' has been the biggest
concern throughout the entire process, while the use of the beloved Batman
character has also been a point of contention.
Hamada had wanted to use Michael Keaton's Batman - who
returned more than 30 years after his 1989 classic Batman in this summer's The
Flash - in this sequel.
He had envisioned Keaton's Batman becoming a character much
like Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, described
as an 'elder statesman' who would pop up in various movies from time to time.
However, things were complicated by shifting release dates,
with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom at one point set to open in March 2023, three
months before The Flash.
Ben Affleck joined a round of reshoots in July 2022, just
two months after De Luca and Abdy took over, to replace the scene that Keaton
had shot... but when Aquaman's release shifted again, it was unclear if
Affleck's scene would be needed.
Just a few months later, in November 2022, James Gunn and
Peter Safran (who produced the first Aquaman) were named as the new heads of
the newly-rebranded DC Studios (from DC Films), with De Luca and Abdy remaining
as the co-CEOs of the Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group.
The current cut of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom does not
feature either Keaton or Affleck as Batman, with sources adding Gunn and Safran
don't want to promote characters from a previous movie universe that won't
'come to fruition,' with a source describing the whole process as, 'pretty
chaotic.'
It was also mentioned that some of the release date shifts
were likely not the fault of the studios or the several regime changes, but
more so due to 'overloaded visual effects houses' that caused many release
dates to shift.
More test screenings took place in February and April of
this year, with sources indicating the filmmaking team was 'in the dumps' over
the seemingly never-ending post-production process, though things are said to
be looking up with the latest reshoots.
Gunn weighed on on the most recent cut and approved five
days of reshoots in June, that went so well Wan completed them in just four
days.
This comes after actress Amber Heard opened up about
returning as Queen Mera, long after debunking rumors she would be replaced or
recast after her controversial defamation trial with ex-husband Johnny Depp.
'These are very different kinds of projects representing two
very different ends of the spectrum in my industry.,' she told Deadline,
comparing Aquaman 2 to her new film In the Fire.
'The best luck you can have as an actor is to be able to
balance both. Aquaman, that franchise and the machinery behind it, I’m very
honoured, honoured to be a part of that.
'And then there are these small passion projects like In The
Fire, where I’m proud to have gotten to know the filmmaker and the cast, and we
got dirty together, to breathe life into this story.
'There’s something cool about that, and I think success is
an actor who is able to have both those things.'
Amber starred in the first Aquaman film in 2018, but her
return in the sequel has been controversial after she accused her ex-husband
Johnny Depp of abuse.
A petition was set up by the Pirates Of The Caribbean
actor's fans demanding her part be recast, accusing her of a 'systematic crusade
to ruin Depp in Hollywood'.
Johnny was dropped from the Fantastic Beasts franchise,
after he lost his case against News Group Newspapers for calling him a
'wife-beater', which a judge ruled was 'substantially true'.
The petition garnered millions of signatures, but Amber
dismissed it, telling Entertainment Weekly: 'Paid rumours and paid campaigns on
social media don’t dictate [casting decisions] because they have no basis in
reality.'
'There’s a ton of pressure on these big franchise movies,
with millions and millions of dollars at stake, and compromises are part of
trying to make it the most successful thing it can be.
'Then on the other end of the spectrum is a small indie film
like In The Fire, a work of art and work of love, with nowhere near the same
resources, and so there are compromises there.
The film’s producer Peter Safran reiterated this, saying: 'I
don’t think we’re ever going to react to, honestly, pure fan pressure. You
gotta do what’s best for the movie. We felt that if it’s [director] James Wan
and [star] Jason Momoa, it should be Amber Heard. That’s really what it was.
'One is not unaware of what is going on in the
Twitter-verse, but that doesn’t mean you have to react to it or take it as
gospel or accede to their wishes. You have to do what’s right for the film, and
that’s really where we landed on it.'
However, during Amber and Johnny's highly-publicised court
case last year, Amber testified that she 'fought really hard to stay in the
movie' but that 'they didn’t want to include me in the film' and only shot a
'very pared-down version' of her part.
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