Universal Pictures has been considering remaking the 1954 classic Creature from the Black Lagoon (watch it HERE) for over thirty years. Writers and directors like Jack Arnold (the director of the original film), Nigel Kneale, John Carpenter, Ivan Reitman, Guillermo del Toro, Gary Ross (son of one of the original writers), Breck Eisner, Dave Kajganich, Carl Erik Rinsch, Jeff Pinkner, and Will Beall have all made attempts to bring the Gill Man back to the screen, and at times the project has gotten so close to happening that the creature design was prepared and sets were built. As far as we know, there's no Creature remake in development at Universal right now – which is probably for the best, since the most recent script written for the project involved a rocket launcher fight in the jungle and the Gill Man being willingly recruited to participate in lab work by Dr. Jekyll.
But if Universal does decide to move forward with a new version of Creature from the Black Lagoon, there's a creative team who might be interested in taking the helm. Speaking with ComicBook.com, special effects artist Greg Nicotero – who has also directed many episodes of The Walking Dead and runs Shudder's Creepshow series – revealed that he and Robert Rodriguez have discussed remaking Creature from the Black Lagoon together.
Nicotero said,
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."
Nicotero went on to say that it's very important for the people behind a remake or reboot to have "respect and passion for the genre."
It's not just taking a title and putting your own spin on it, because anybody can put whatever spin they want on it because everyone's going to have a different approach, but you have to have respect for the original material. I feel like that, for me, is one of the things that really drives me, because I have respect for the storytelling that was done on the original Creepshow and everything that George [Romero] did, everything that [Stephen King] has done. So, to have the ability to approach a project like that with respect, I just feel is the key ingredient in the success of rebooting anything."
An example Nicotero used is the respect Frank Darabont had for Night of the Living Dead when he was developing The Walking Dead:
Frank Darabont entered that universe with respect. He loved Night of the Living Dead and he wanted to pay tribute to the Romero universe. I remember talking to Frank years before Walking Dead ever even happened and saying, 'Man, I would just love to visit that universe because I love the idea of there being a survival story set in that world.'"
Creature from the Black Lagoon is my favorite of the classic Universal monster movies, so I wouldn't mind seeing an updated version of the film – and if it were to be made, I think Nicotero and Rodriguez could do something fun with it.
In the meantime, Nicotero pays tribute to the likes of the Gill Man, the Mummy, and Frankenstein's Monster in the first episode of Creepshow season 2, which will be available to watch on Shudder as of April 1st.