Although there are certainly better films to be had in the Universal Monsters franchise, I've got an incredible soft spot for CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON; it's all fantastic, the thrilling underwater sequences, Julie Adams, the repetitive theme music, and, of course, the Creature himself. A remake of the film has been in the works for decades, but due to various delays, none of those projects ever managed to get to the shooting stage. Now that Universal is preparing to launch their own cinematic universe centering around their famous monsters, we'll finally get to see the Creature menace a new generation.
Deadline reports that Will Beall, fresh off of scripting AQUAMAN for James Wan and Warner Bros, has signed on the pen the screenplay for THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON. The 1954 original centered around a group of explorers and scientists who set out to try and capture a strange prehistoric beast and bring it back to civilization for study. Obviously, things didn't exactly go according to plan. The last we heard of the remake had Jeff Pinkner (Fringe) writing the script and Universal courting Scarlett Johansson to star.
Universal has big plans for their new cinematic universe, with projects centering around The Invisible Man, Frankenstein's Monster, The Wolf Man, Van Helsing and more in various stages of development. The new franchise will kick off with THE MUMMY on June 9, 2017, which stars Tom Cruise, Annabelle Wallis, Sofia Boutella, Jake Johnson and Russell Crowe. A new trailer for THE MUMMY will drop this Sunday and we'll have that up for you just as soon as it's available.
The official synopsis for THE MUMMY:
Thought safely entombed in a tomb deep beneath the unforgiving desert, an ancient princess whose destiny was unjustly taken from her is awakened in our current day, bringing with her malevolence grown over millennia and terrors that defy human comprehension. From the sweeping sands of the Middle East through hidden labyrinths under modern-day London, The Mummy brings a surprising intensity and balance of wonder and thrills in an imaginative new take that ushers in a new world of gods and monsters.