Aquaman in IMAX Will Mostly Be in Taller Aspect Ratio, Reveals Director James Wan

Most of Aquaman will be available in IMAX's taller aspect ratio, director James Wan has revealed. Replying to a Twitter query from a fan on Tuesday, Wan said almost 90 percent of the upcoming DC superhero movie will be presented in full-screen on IMAX screens worldwide. That translates to a 1.43:1 aspect ratio for those lucky enough to have 70mm IMAX or IMAX with Laser in their city, and 1.90:1 for the rest of us with Digital IMAX systems. All IMAX screens in India are the latter kind.

Aquaman hasn't been filmed with IMAX cameras, though. Instead, Aquaman has undergone digital media remastering (DMR), which up-converts the film for IMAX 70mm. This process is used by many since IMAX cameras tend to be cost-prohibitive, noisy, and a logistical nightmare, which is why filmmakers tend to use them sparingly. On Aquaman, cinematographer Don Burgess (Spider-Man, Forrest Gump) used the Arri Alexa Mini and Arri Alexa XT.

Christopher Nolan is one of the few IMAX-camera aficionados, having kicked off its use with 2008's The Dark Knight, and has since made heavier use of it in 2012's The Dark Knight Rises, 2014's Interstellar, and 2017's Dunkirk. With the last of those, Nolan and his cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema only used IMAX 65mm and large-format 65mm film stock, with the former constituting most of the scenes in Dunkirk.

Directed by Wan, Aquaman stars Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, Willem Dafoe, Patrick Wilson, Dolph Lundgren, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Nicole Kidman among others. The film is part of the DC film universe, which includes Shazam! in 2019, and Birds of Prey and Wonder Woman 1984 in 2020.

Aquaman releases December 14 in India.