Last fall, it was reported that Warner Bros. had hired The Conjuring 2 scribe David Leslie Johnson to write the screenplay for Aquaman, which would reunite him with director James Wan. It looks like that didn’t exactly work out, as WB has now tapped Gangster Squad writer Will Beall to pen the screenplay based on a story treatment by Wan and DC’s Geoff Johns.

There have been rumors that WB was commissioning multiple scripts (six, per some reports) for movies like Aquaman and Wonder Woman, and sort of hedging their bets, if you will. That, combined with the fact that almost every movie (especially a major studio blockbuster) goes through multiple drafts, doesn’t make today’s news particularly surprising.

Per Variety, WB has hired Will Beall to work on the Aquaman screenplay, to be based on the story treatment by Wan and Geoff Johns. In addition to writing Gangster Squad for WB, Beall one of the writers on CBS’s new Training Day series, based on the acclaimed Antoine Fuqua film of the same name; and he’s collaborating with Straight Outta Compton scribe Andrea Berloff on the The Legend of Conan, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s long-developing sequel to his classic fantasy-action flick.

All of this is to say that Beall seems like a solid pick to write the Aquaman screenplay, though he’s far from the only cook hanging out in that particular kitchen. Ultimately, it’s up to Wan and Johns to bring this new vision of the Atlantean hero to life.

Jason Momoa recently made his big screen debut as Aquaman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and will reprise the role in the first Justice League movie, which hits theaters next fall. His solo movie is scheduled to arrive on July 27, 2018.

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