James Wan may have made the transition to directing mega-budget blockbusters look easy, with the massive commercial success of Fast and Furious 7 and Aquaman resulting in him becoming just the second filmmaker ever to helm two unrelated movies that both managed to earn over a billion dollars at the box office, putting him in incredibly rarefied air alongside James Cameron. But it seems his heart will always remain in the horror genre.
Having first broken out as the co-creator of the Saw franchise with Leigh Whannell, Wan is also the architect behind the Conjuring universe, and the recently-delayed The Devil Made Me Do It will inevitably see the series cross the $2 billion mark globally to reaffirm itself as the biggest and most popular brand in horror.
Despite directing the first two installments, the 43 year-old opted to hand the reins on the third Conjuring movie to Michael Chaves in order to focus on an original project of his own. Malignant was supposed to open this weekend, but due to the continuing effects of the Coronavirus pandemic, it was pulled from the schedule in March, and still hasn’t been given a new date as of yet.
Plot details are incredibly hard to come by, but in a recent interview, star Annabelle Wallis teased that Wan’s latest will once again cement his reputation as one of horror’s leading lights.
“Oh my god. I mean, I think we have something very special. I think it’s genre-bending. I think it’s so brave. It’s so original. I just haven’t read anything like it. And you know, again, I’m at a place in my life and my career where it’s time to be brave. It’s time to push. And I think it’s really going to be something that audiences are pretty wowed by because it’s a real passion project for him. So, I’m very excited. Yeah, let’s see. That’s what good art and good cinema is. You kind of throw it out there, and then you don’t know how people are going to react. That’s the exciting thing, you know.”
Having spent the last few years firmly entrenched in the world of big-name franchises, James Wan sees Malignant as a chance to recharge his creative batteries and work on a completely original idea that doesn’t rely on visual effects or an existing property. And based on Wallis’ comments, it sounds as though he might have come up with something that audiences have never seen before.
