Lets do some fun speculation!
I would give anything to see an Aquaman movie. Now, I know what you are thinking, “You really want to see a movie that takes place 90% of the time in water? Dude, do you not remember Water World, that’s like an Aquaman movie? It’s as terrible as an Aquaman movie would be.” But what about Titanic and Open Water, those movies took place in water and did fairly well. I think its all about who you have direct the movie, I think that would be the key to having a bad ass Aquaman movie. You have to find a director and stars who would enjoy the risk of being in an Aquaman movie.
I have done a lot of thinking about who should be in this movie and how it should be made, I guess you can say I have spent WAY to much time trying to figure this out. I think if Hollywood would hire me *I* would be able to make it amazing. So here me out on this and let me know if you are feeling the same way of if I’m just a crazy fan trying for the world to see how bad ass Arthur Curry is in the world of comic books.
Lets begin with the title of the movie, I think if it was simply called “Aquaman” no one would take it serious no matter how awesome it looks, instead I think it should take the same route as Man of Steel. MoS made the impact that it wasn’t going to be the same Superman movies of the late 90’s and early 2000’s. I think the movie should be called “Dweller of The Depths.” This leaves a lot to the imagination, could we see a more terrifying horror style comic movie with Aquaman fighting some mythical evil sea creature, or could Dweller of The Depths be a title for Aquaman? I think Hollywood could have a lot more fun and gain more public interest by expanding on some of the extended universe with Aquaman.
Now for the director, I think we would need someone that could imagine Atlantis and bring that imagery to the surface world. When I think about what director I would want, two come to mind. One of them I love, and the other I really don’t enjoy but I think he could really pull this film off. I’ll start with one of my favorite directors, I really think Ridley Scott would be perfect for this film. Ridley took us into terrifying space during Alien, he created the perfect world for Blade Runner, and I personally thought Prometheus was one of the best films of 2012. (Sure the characters made terrible, terrible decisions that no one would make, but it was still a beautiful film.) I honestly think Ridley Scott would bring Arthur Curry to a whole new light.
Now my second pick would be someone I don’t normally like, but I think he could bring to life the most beautiful and real Atlantis, Peter Jackson. His visions of Middle Earth in The Lord of The Ring series and The Hobbit(s) were absolutely breathtaking. Even his depiction of the island on which King Kong is found, was an eerie and intense feeling. With his abilities to bring Middle Earth to life and his vision of King Kong, I think Aquaman would be an awesome project for him. (BUT, we also need to keep in mind that for comic book movies we need to have a director that shows interest in the character. Iron Man was such a success because Jon Favreau loves the character and on the opposite side of things, Green Lantern wasn’t that great because Martin Campbell didn’t really care about Hal.)
Now here is the fun part of this, who in the world would play Aquaman? This is where I had the most fun. I am a HUGE True Blood fan, and from the first episode I ever saw, I always thought Alexander Skarsgard would be the perfect Arthur Curry. He has that tormented soul feeling, he looks like he could be royalty, we have seen him PISSED in True Blood and we have also seen him play other roles besides the hundreds of year old Viking vampire. He has stretched himself in many different roles, a model in Zoolander, he was in that awesome Battleship movie, and he played a Sergeant in Generation Kill. I think Skarsgard could easily play Arthur. And the plus to him in this movie, every 20 something girl and middle age mom will have no problem seeing this movie with their boyfriends, husbands and sons.
The next character I had a little bit more trouble trying to figure out who would be best as Arthurs love interest Mera. I originally said that Jane Levy would be the best actress for Mera. I threw this idea out to Stephen Andrew one day and he mentioned that Jane might look too young to play the Queen of Atlantis. He made the suggestion that Katie McGrath of NBC’s Dracula might be best for that role, after a lot of thinking and watching a few episodes, I think if you dyed her hair red, she would pull off the best Mera. I think interactions between Katie and Skarsgard would be really interesting and I think they would have really interesting chemistry together.
For an Aquaman villain, it took some serious thinking on who could best hate Aquaman. I originally couldn’t think of anyone but then as I was reading Forever Evil it hit me that Black Manta would HAVE to be in the first Aquaman film, he is one of his two arch enemies and hates him more than anything. I think David Oyelowo would best play this role and I think he could become a terrifying villain and as an actor, I think his actions would be harder to try to guess what he was planning and/or what he would do. I don’t see Black Manta to be as chaotic and spontaneous as The Joker or as well prepared as Bane, but I do see Black Manta as a character that can always challenge Arthur and bring him to his breaking point. I really see David Oyelowo as someone who can blossom in this role and really make it his own.
Now I have one more person I want in this film. He can play Arthur’s best friend or even his scientific advisor Nuidis Vulko. For this role I want TJ Miller. You might be thinking “What the F*&%? Why TJ Miller?” Well honestly, I think he would be hilarious and just a random ass character that could be a lot of fun. Iron Man had some comedic relief and even in The Dark Knight Rises there was some humor. I think it Vulko was making fun of Aquaman throughout the movie and just ripping into him for being lame it would be really enjoyable. In the first issue of Aquaman by Geoff Johns he has someone constantly making fun of Aquaman for being “nobody’s favorite superhero.” I think they could write that into the movie to really work well. Or we can have Anthony Jeselnik and just be a complete dick. Either way, I think it would be great.
