James Wan will be coming back to the genre that he is very familiar with and successful in: horror. After taking a break from the genre that launched his career to enter the action-blockbuster realm with 2018’s Aquaman, Wan will reportedly be returning with a new and original horror effort. More on the report below.

THR says Wan will be producing and is expected to direct the still-unnamed horror film, which is expected to begin shooting in the Fall. He will be co-writing this project based on a story by him and Ingrid Bisu. Although plot details remain a secret, word is that “the film is expected to be a slice of horror Wan hasn’t yet explored.” Sounds interesting. He’s already done psychological thrillers with films from the Saw franchise, haunted puppetry with Dead Silence, and ghosts with Insidious and Insidious 2. He also built an entire paranormal horror universe around the Warrens and their various collections of possessed items starting with 2013’s The Conjuring, so to see what this slice of horror will entail is very exciting.

Wan has been taking a break from the horror genre to direct some action heavy movies like Furious 7 and Aquaman. Both were bonafide box office hits for their respective studios, with the latter being one of the best of the DCEU films. In fact, Aquaman was so good, it spawned an upcoming spinoff The Trench, based on one of the horrifyingly scary sea creatures seen in the film. But Wan made a name for himself in 2004 with his directorial debut Saw, a jarring psychological thriller that tested a mad man’s victim’s will to live and their moralities.

New Line, Warner Bros.’ genre-based production arm, which worked with Wan on The Conjuring films, will distribute Wan’s new original untitled horror.

Wan is keeping himself busy as of late. He is currently producing the new live-action Mortal Kombat film, along with the third Conjuring installment, which is due out for release in September 2020. And after all of that, he dives back into the deep when he starts to direct Aquaman 2. According to Variety, production for the sequel for the deep sea hero is slated to begin sometime in 2020.

I am very excited that Wan is making a come back to the genre where he made a name for himself. The director has always talked about making some sort of return to horror, and we saw elements of that in Aquaman. So it should be fun to see which type of horror he will be tackling. One thing is for sure, he’s knows that genre well. So if anyone is going to write and direct an original horror feature, it might as well be him.

[Source: THR | Variety]