After Leigh Whannell's THE INVISIBLE MAN quickly became a critical and commercial success less, there was little doubt in my mind that Blumhouse Productions would play in the Universal Monsters sandbox once again. According to THR, one of the next Universal Monsters to be revived will be the Prince of Darkness himself, Dracula.
Karyn Kusama, best known for THE INVITATION and DESTROYER, is slated to direct, with Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay, who have worked with Kusama on a number of her projects, penning the script. Blumhouse Productions will produce, and although the project isn't officially set up with Universal Pictures just yet, it likely will be as Blumhouse has a first-look deal with the studio. According to THR, the DRACULA project will take place in modern times, much like recent THE INVISIBLE MAN reboot. Following the failure of the Dark Universe franchise, the studio has chartered a new course which moves away from an interconnected universe and instead focuses on bringing in creative directors with distinctive visions for the classic monsters. This certainly worked for THE INVISIBLE MAN, and has set the stage for future Universal Monster movies. "It's a 'best idea wins' approach," one producer told THR, "and they are having the filmmakers find the individual stories." As far as the other Universal Monsters go, Blumhouse Productions CEO Jason Blum has said that he'd also love to tackle Frankenstein's monster.
I’d love to do Frankenstein. I’ve tasked our filmmakers with trying to figure out just straight Frankenstein. Again, I don’t know if someone else is doing it, I don’t know anything about it, but I would love to try and I’m waiting for the great idea…the best ideas feel like, ‘My gosh, it’s so obvious, why didn’t that happen before?’ If we could come up with something as good for Frankenstein, I’d love to try that.
It was also recently announced that James Wan (AQUAMAN) would be teaming up with Universal Pictures to produce an untitled monster movie which will take "its cues from Universal’s classic monster legacy and shines it through a modern prism. With shades of Disturbia, the story will focus on a group of teens who discover that a neighbor is building a monster in his basement. Spoiler: the monster gets loose." At long last, the future of the Universal Monsters is looking rather bright.
THE INVISIBLE MAN is now playing in theaters, so be sure to check out a review from our own Matt Rooney!