The Dark Universe may have imploded in spectacular fashion after just one movie despite the likes of Tom Cruise, Russell Crowe, Johnny Depp, Javier Bardem and Angelina Jolie all being eyed for major roles, but there are more Universal Monster films in development now than at any other stage in history.
It’s largely down to the success of Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man, which made $143 million at the box office on a $7 million budget, proving that the horror genre is the way to reinvent the roster for modern audiences, not as the stars of mega budget blockbusters. And in the blink of an eye, countless projects were announced and thrown into active development.
Chloe Zhao and Karyn Kusama are both working on versions of Dracula while Dexter Fletcher is signed to tackle spinoff Renfield, Elizabeth Banks is poised to direct and headline The Invisible Woman, Whannell is teaming up with Ryan Gosling for The Wolfman and Overlord‘s Julius Avery is rebooting Van Helsing, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
One classic monster movie that’s been left alone so far, though, is Creature from the Black Lagoon, which launched a trilogy that concluded in 1956. In the decades since, countless filmmakers have attempted to mount a remake including such big names as John Landis, John Carpenter, Ivan Reitman and Guillermo del Toro, but nobody could actually get it into production.
However, The Walking Dead and Creepshow executive producer Greg Nicotero has revealed that he’d love to take a crack at it, and he even wants Robert Rodriguez involved.
I think for any creature, monster kid, Creature from the Black Lagoon is the quintessential monster movie. I think Robert Rodriguez and I always talk about like, ‘Hey, man. Maybe we should co-direct a Creature from the Black Lagoon movie’, because he and I have identical tastes. We love Jaws. We love The Thing. We love Escape from New York and Blade Runner. We toy with the idea of like, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we remade Creature from the Black Lagoon?’. And I know they’ve been trying to do it forever, but, for me, that’s the quintessential Universal Monster movie.”
Rodriguez is a busy man given his newfound status as a member of the Star Wars universe, but Nicotero could yet prove to be the guy to finally mount a new version of Creature from the Black Lagoon if the stars align.