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Warner Bros.’ Quest to Build a Better ‘Aquaman’ Sequel: 3 Reshoots, Two Batmans and Non-Stop Test Screenings (The Hollywood Reporter)


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To some insiders, the fact that the Warners is willing to keep spending money to make the film better shows that the studio has faith in 'Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom,' James Wan's sequel to his $1 billion hit.

 

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“The sequel to Warner Bros.' 2018 DC movie is coming off a round of reshoots that occurred in New Zealand in mid-June and involved stars including Jason Momoa and Patrick Wilson, according to multiple sources.

 

The latest cut of the film features neither [Affleck/Keaton] version of the Dark Knight, according to sources, as new DC heads James Gunn and Peter

 

Safran do not want to promise a movie universe that will not come to fruition nor tie it down excessively to past failures.

 

Insiders say that the filmmakers were in the dumps by the seemingly never-ending post-production process and water-logged test scores. However, the skies may have cleared with the new reshoots.

 

Gunn is said to have weighed in on the most recent cut and the leadership approved a five-day shoot. Sources say the shoot went so well that Wan and company completed what they needed in only four.

 

The filmmakers and studio knows the value that smart post-production can bring. The first Aquaman was also facing turbulent waves and is said to have found its footing only in post, when a new ending was burnished and the movie tightened to a zipper two hours and twenty-three minutes.

 

Lost Kingdom is already an expensive production. It was greenlit at a $205 million budget and shot during the pandemic, which was a burdensome expense on tentpole productions. Additionally, every frame of the movie involves visual effects, another major cost. The reshoots have only raised that overall budget.

 

And to some, the fact that Warners is willing to keep spending money to make the film better shows that the studio has faith in The Lost Kingdom. (In February, according to sources, the filmmakers of Blue Beetle, the other remaining DC movie that was made during the AT&T era and comes out in August, asked for two days of additional shooting but the studio turned them down. Safran had also been a producer on Beetle before his ascension to the executive ranks.)”

 

 

RIP in Peace, Blue Beetle.

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After the Flash I'm increasingly confident that the box office difference between a mediocre DCU film and a terrible one is pretty minimal. Hell, Flash is going to end up right around Green Lantern. Unless these reshoots are going to elevate this film into a must see, I doubt it's money well spent.

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Is this similar to Netflix, Fox, and other places where the trust has been broken, so people don't watch stuff until they know it's a hit and it will be renewed or is on for several seasons? Catch-22, because people won't watch and it will get cancelled all the faster. I feel like DCU is similar. General fans aren't going to invest time until they know it's worth it... even if it's a fantastic film, unless it's something like Joker or The Batman... any universe building film ain't worth going to when it's already been cancelled.

 

Probably lesson here is maybe don't tell folks you're rebooting until after the last of the films come out.

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13 hours ago, skillzdadirecta said:

How crazy would it be if the DCU has not one,not two, not three, but FOUR undeperforming super hero movies in one year?

 

I'm really not sure how James Gunn is able to sleep at night with the knowledge that the responsibility for maintaining the viability of the entirety of the DC cinematic enterprise effectively rests solely on his shoulders. 

 

No pressure, James.  No pressure at all.

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10 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

I'm really not sure how James Gunn is able to sleep at night with the knowledge that the responsibility for maintaining the viability of the entirety of the DC cinematic enterprise effectively rests solely on his shoulders. 

 

No pressure, James.  No pressure at all.

In his mind he's probably like "I can't do any worse :p"

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16 hours ago, skillzdadirecta said:

How crazy would it be if the DCU has not one,not two, not three, but FOUR undeperforming super hero movies in one year?

 

 

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‘BLUE BEETLE’ is long range tracking to earn $12M-$17M in the film’s domestic opening weekend.

 

For reference, the film's budget is estimated at $120 million.

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