The next movie from Paul Feig, director of Bridesmaids and The Heat, has just been announced, and it isn’t what you would expect from a filmmaker best known for his work in the comedy genre. Feig is set to write and direct Dark Army, based on an original idea that he developed himself, with the project set up at Universal and set to feature some of the studio’s stable of classic monsters.
This news comes completely out of left-field, as the guy that shot to prominence making broad Melissa McCarthy comedies seems like a strange choice to tackle the likes of Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolfman. At least Feig seems to be ready to make a big-budget studio blockbuster again after the insane levels of online backlash that followed Ghostbusters every step of the way.
Of course, Universal are keen to take a different approach to their library of monsters after some high-profile missteps in recent years. After Dracula Untold failed to reinvent the iconic vampire for modern audiences, the entire thing was quickly swept under the rug as they hastily-assembled the star-powered Dark Universe. However, after The Mummy bombed hard amidst rumors of behind-the-scenes disagreements that saw Tom Cruise essentially commandeer the entire production, the rumored likes of Johnny Depp’s Invisible Man, Javier Bardem’s Frankenstein and Angelina Jolie’s Bride of Frankenstein were scrapped entirely.
Along with Dark Army, Blumhouse are also getting into the monster game, with The Invisible Man currently shooting under the direction of Saw co-creator Leigh Whannell with Elisabeth Moss and Oliver Jackson-Cohen leading the cast. The idea of Paul Feige making a Universal monster movie is definitely an intriguing one, and hopefully the decision to focus on standalone stories instead of creating an entire cinematic universe out of nothing will yield better results this time around.