This is just about the best news I’ve heard in months to be sure, as news has come in today from Universal Pictures that the studio intends to bring back most of their classic monsters to life again in all-new films! But wait, haven’t they already tried that and failed you say? The answer would be yes with the exception of 2010’s The Wolfman remake, I thought it was an excellent film, but I’m in the minority on that. Universal intends to reboot many of their famous monsters in films but still making them exist in one cohesive universe, ala Marvel’s superhero films. Read on for more details.
According to Deadline, The studio is in early stages of developing a substantial new production endeavor that will expand and unify a network of classic characters and stories. The architects of that narrative will be Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan. Kurtzman recently broke with partner Roberto Orci, but his big-scale projects have included Transformers, Star Trek and The Amazing Spider-Man. Morgan is the writer behind five installments of The Fast And The Furious, which has been Universal’s most reliably lucrative franchise.
It’s not set in stone yet if either will write, but they will soon be going around town enlisting talent to bring new cinematic life to these enduring characters from lore, literature and Universal’s own library. Unlike Universal’s most recent attempts to revive these monsters with films like The Mummy, Van Helsing, The Wolfman, and the upcoming Dracula Untold, these were all stand alone films. This will mark the first time that Universal will try to connect them all in some cohesive way.
The first film will be another reboot of The Mummy, which will be released in April of 2016. While some of those monster pictures haven’t panned out, this seems like a smart move. If Marvel Studios and Disney can build a billion-dollar business relying on the Marvel Comics superhero character library, why shouldn’t Universal redouble its efforts to dust off and modernize the classic movie monsters that inspired many of the movie monsters we see today?
I really hope Universal gets their ass in gear and does this right, here’s to hoping it all works out. We’ll be keeping a very close eye on all of the developments with this huge undertaking and keep it here at Horror Society for all the latest on this in the future!
Source: Deadline
