27 Dec – Kuching-born Hollywood director James Wan returns to Malaysia to promote his latest project, the newest DC film "Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom". According to James, the difference highlighted in this sequel film is the growth of the titular character, Arthur Curry played by Jason Momoa, who now bears the additional responsibility as the King of Atlantis as well as being a husband to Mera and father to Arthur Jr.
"Through this second film, we will be able to see Aquaman's own journey after becoming the King of Atlantis even though he is a bit reluctant to take on that responsibility. He didn't really want to be king, but he had to do it to prevent the Atlantean kingdom from attacking the surface dwellers. So he feels he has a responsibility to two different worlds." "Aquaman also works with his brother, Orm played by Patrick Wilson, to save the world from the villain Black Manta," the director said when met at the press conference at the Aurum Theatre, The Exchange TRX Mall, Kuala Lumpur, recently.
The filmmaker added that the movie conveys the message that we have to sometimes make difficult choices or do things even if we don't want to. James shares that "the action, the underwater and the VFX stuff are fun to watch but are not fun to make. It's quite the opposite. It's difficult to plan and put it together. So for me the fun stuff is actually working with the actors. I really like seeing Jason Momoa and Patrick Wilson getting together, seeing their chemistry together and seeing what they do with each other." He added about the scenes of the actors swimming underwater, "In the first movie the actors were all harnessed in really awkward and uncomfortable rings. But you know it's been three to five years later so technology has grown dramatically and now I don't have to put my actors through so much torture and pain." "I captured their performances and overlaid back onto the 3D versions of themselves. That's how we create them swimming and moving. It's really cool because we were working with the actors but also mixing it with virtual filmmaking at the same time." The director collaborated with writer David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and took inspiration from "The Silver Age Aquaman" comics from the 1960s. In addition to Jason Momoa and Patrick Wilson, the film also stars Amber Heard, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Randall Park, Dolph Lundgren, Temuera Morrison, Martin Short dan Nicole Kidman. "Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom" is screening in theatres now.