Aquaman director James Wan has described an ‘out there’ prison escape scene he cut from the script. Wan is a director who made his name in the horror genre, directing low-budget thriller Saw back in 2004. The movie was originally earmarked for a straight to video release, but after attracting strong buzz at festivals, it would go on to become a horror sensation. While Saw would spawn various sequels and video games, Wan declined to direct a sequel.

Wan’s next two directorial projects failed to attract much business, but he came back strong with 2011’s Insidious. He’s worked almost non-stop ever since, producing and directing The Conjuring films and their various spinoffs such as The Nun. He’s also branched out from horror into big budget blockbusters, starting with 2013’s Furious 7. His latest movie is DC’s Aquaman, with Jason Momoa reprising his role as Arthur Curry, who has to spot his evil half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) from starting a war with the surface.

James Wan took Aquaman as his chance to so some Star Wars-style world building, and really flesh out how the underwater kingdom of Atlantis. Wan embraces the inherent silliness of the concept for a movie that’s arguably one of the best entries in the DCEU thus far. Now in a new conversation with Collider, Wan describes a bloody escape scene he cut from the script, describing it as a little too crazy to make the movie.

There’s no shortage of craziness on display in Aquaman - including an octopus playing the drums - so it says something that this sequence was a little too much for Wan. While the scene itself sounds like fun, it likely would have been too gory to survive a PG-13 rating intact anyway. It would have given Wan a chance to display some of his horror movie chops, though he got to craft a couple of creepy sequences, such as the attack on Arthur and Mera (Amber Heard) by creatures from The Trench.

He had a really quirky out-there [sequence]…it wasn’t the studio, it was me that said, ‘I don’t know if we can have that in there, that’s a bit weird.’ As much as I loved it. He had this sequence where…Aquaman has been apprehended by King Orm and he’s been thrown into this dungeon. Like this really awful prison deep in Atlantis. He ends up starting a prison riot, where all the guards are sharks. They were shark-guards, like all shark head…and he kills one of the shark guards and the shark starts bleeding and then that starts a feeding frenzy among all the other shark guards. It just went nuts. We’re talking like clouds of blood billowing everywhere and he uses that to escape. I was like “Holy crap, I don’t know if I can do that."

Aquaman is proving to be a hit, so it will be interesting to see how the character’s role evolves in future DC movies. Following the critical lashing Justice League receiving, Warner Bros seem focused on rehabilitating the reputation of the brand with movies like Birds Of Prey, Wonder Woman 1984 and Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker movie. There doesn’t appear to be any current plans for an Aquaman sequel, and while Wan says he has concepts in mind, he’s not signed for a follow-up.

Now Aquaman is complete, Wan seems to be focusing on producing for the time being. He recently revealed story details for both The Conjuring 3 and Annabelle 3, whilst also confirming he’s no longer part of the upcoming Resident Evil reboot.

More: Resident Evil Movie Reboot: James Wan No Longer Producing

Source: Collider

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