The DC Extended Universe is set to have a big year in 2017, with Wonder Woman and Justice League both rolling out and The Batman set to begin shooting (as soon as they find someone who wants to direct it). In 2018, DC will send Aquaman to theaters as a follow-up to the character’s appearance in Justice League (he was of course already seen briefly in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) and that film too has long been scheduled to begin shooting in 2017.

Last December, the start date for Aquaman was narrowed down to a month. Word came out that Aquaman was set to go before cameras in May of 2017, first in Australia and later in Italy. Now the movie has an official date to begin shooting.

According to My Entertainment World, Aquaman will go before cameras beginning on May 22nd, 2017 and will shoot under the working title Ahab. The Italian island of Sicily is listed as a second shooting location. The plot synopsis reads:

Jason Momoa will star as Aquaman, with Amber Heard as Mera, Willem Dafoe as Nuidis Vulko, Patrick Wilson as Orm and Nicole Kidman as Aquaman’s mother Atlanna. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II has been cast as bad guy Black Mantis. James Wan is directing from a script by Will Beall. Conjuring 2 cinematographer Don Burgess was recently added to the crew.

The film is about a superhero from the sea who can telepathically communicate with all sea creatures is caught between a rock and a hard place when the creatures of the sea want to revolt against the surface world.

Star Jason Momoa has been going through extensive training ahead of the start of shooting, including learning how to handle a trident, a very important skill for anyone hoping to portray Aquaman. Amber Heard too has been training hard in hand-to-hand combat for her role as Mera. When the two stars get to Australia in May they’ll begin putting all the hard work to use shooting the movie’s sure-to-be-plentiful action scenes.

Aquaman has spent years in development, going all the way back to the early 2000s when it passed through several sets of hands (including Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way) before ending up at Warner Bros. The studio initially ordered two scripts to be written simultaneously and ended up going with the one written by Will Beall, based on a treatment by director James Wan and DC Entertainment President Geoff Johns.

Right now, Aquaman is the only DCEU movie scheduled to come out in 2018, so in that sense it will have the stage all to itself. By that time Aquaman will have appeared in Justice League so audiences will already have some idea of what the character is up to. Fleshing out Aquaman’s undersea world will be a big challenge for James Wan, his cast and crew, but hopefully a rewarding one too.

Source: My Entertainment World

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