page_title: James Wan
section_title: 2014–present
hierarchical_section_title: James Wan / Career / 2014–present
caption_attribution_description: English: James Wan speaking at the 2013 WonderCon in Anaheim, California on March 30, 2013.
context_page_description: James Wan is a Malaysian-born Australian film director, screenwriter, producer, and comic book writer. He rose to prominence as co-creator of the Saw film franchise. He served as a producer on all eight films in the series, in addition to directing Saw and co-writing Saw III. He also directed Dead Silence and Death Sentence, Insidious, The Conjuring and Insidious: Chapter 2, Furious 7, The Conjuring 2, and Aquaman. Furious 7 and Aquaman each grossed $1 billion dollars, making Wan the eighth director with two films that have reached that milestone.
context_section_description: In early 2013, Wan entered into negotiations with Universal Pictures to direct the seventh installment of The Fast and the Furious action franchise after Justin Lin, who directed the previous four sequels, confirmed that he would not continue as director in January 2013. Wan was part of a directorial shortlist alongside Jeff Wadlow, Baltasar Kormákur and Harald Zwart.
  A final confirmation that Wan would direct was revealed in April 2013, with Lin being quoted: "It's time for me to move on to other things and I'm thrilled that Universal and Neal have selected James Wan to lead the franchise into its new chapter." The film, Furious 7, was released in April 2015. It became the most successful film in terms of box office revenues and critics reviews in the Fast and Furious franchise.
  On 20 October 2014, Gary Maddox of The Sydney Morning Herald announced that Wan had agreed to direct The Conjuring 2 as part of a significant long-term deal with New Line Cinema. Head of New Line, Toby Emmerich, explained that Wan is the sole director that the studio signed a deal with, as New Line considers Wan to be "a class of one". The film was released on 10 June 2016, to high critical acclaim and commercial success.
  On 21 October 2014, Wan had launched his own production company, Atomic Monster Productions, at New Line Cinema. With the company, he develops and produces budget films in the science fiction, horror, and comedy genres. The films produced by the label include The Conjuring 2 and Lights Out.
  Wan also produced Demonic, a Dimension Films horror movie that was scheduled for a December 2014 release, alongside Lee Clay. Wan conceived of the idea for the film, which was directed by Will Canon and features Maria Bello in the lead role. Max La Bella penned the script. The film was eventually released on VOD in August 2017.
  Wan then produced Annabelle, a spin-off of The Conjuring that served as a prequel to the 2013 film. The spin-off was profitable for film production company New Line, as it was made for a cost of $6.5 million and grossed over million  on 3 October 2014. He also produced the prequel film Annabelle: Creation, which was released in 2017, another Conjuring spin-off horror film,  The Nun, which was released on 7 September 2018, and a sequel, Annabelle Comes Home, which was released on 26 June 2019. Wan co-wrote the stories of The Nun and the third Annabelle film with Gary Dauberman.
  In 2018, Wan directed the superhero film Aquaman, which was released in early December in China, and in the US on 21 December, as part of the DC Extended Universe. The film grossed over $1.1 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing DCEU film as well as the highest-grossing film based on a DC Comics character, internationally, surpassing The Dark Knight Rises.
  In 2019, Wan developed a television series based on the character Swamp Thing, for the DC Universe streaming service.
caption: Wan at WonderCon in 2013
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