Since the death of Universal's Dark Universe with The Mummy flopping at the box office in 2017, Universal stepped back and re-thought their whole strategy for the iconic Monsters. They now have a few Monster projects in the pipeline. Starting with Leigh Whannell's The Invisible Man (to be released later this month), continuing on with Paul Feig's Dark Army, Dexter Fletcher's Reinfield and finally Elizabeth Banks' The Invisible Woman. Now Deadline have officially reported a film titled Monster Mash is also in the works.
At the moment not a lot is known, but Deadline is describing Monster Mash as "an original musical film for Matt Stawski to direct, with Will Widger writing the script."
"The idea is being kept close to the vest, but it was hatched by Stawski to make his feature directing debut."
The Invisible Man opens in cinemas February 28th. The upcoming film, written and directed by Whannell and produced by Blum, is a modern reimagining of both the original 1933 film and H.G Wells novel. A new trailer was released yesterday and we honestly can't wait for it!
In the film-
When Cecilia's abusive ex takes his own life and leaves her his fortune, she suspects his death was a hoax. As a series of coincidences turn lethal, Cecilia works to prove that she is being hunted by someone nobody can see.
As to what to expect from Paul Feig's Dark Army, speaking with ComingSoon.net last October he gave fans a little inside information of what we can expect.
"I’m a mega-fan of those old horror movies. I call them more monster movies than horror movies, quite frankly. Horror movies to me now represent slasher and that kind of thing, which I don’t enjoy at all. I loved those old movies like 'Frankenstein.' 'Bride of Frankenstein' is probably one of the greatest movies of all-time. I love that movie so much, and there are some things from that movie that I’m using in this new movie 'Dark Army.' But I really want to do a James Whale-ish, modern day version of a monster movie that is about these characters. What I love about monsters is they’re outsiders, it’s just the most extreme version of outsiders. I want to bring that ookie spookie feel back to movies, but with these monsters you root for and understand at the same time. I finished the first draft of the script and I’m so excited about it! I’m literally on fire about getting this movie made as soon as I can. I turned it into the Dark Universe people last week and they loved it. Now it’s going over to the heads of Universal, so we’ll see."
In an interesting turn of events, Universal announced a film centuring around Dracula's insane, insect eating servant R. M. Reinfield last November. Dexter Fletcher is set to direct the film based off an original idea from The Walking Dead's co-creator Robert Kirkman with the script being written by Rick and Morty's Ryan Ridley, as originally revealed by Variety.
Shortly after Universal then revealed a re-adaptation of The Invisible Woman was in development. Deadline unveiled the news as Elizabeth Banks is set to star and direct the film with Erin Cressida Wilson writing the first draft.
It'll be interesting to see what Universal can do with these films. Fingers crossed they're as great as the original iconic Universal Monster films were.
Picture credit- Universal Pictures, Alex Ross Art, Shutterstock
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