Paul Feig has completed two drafts of his Universal monsters movie Dark Army

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

It was announced nine months ago that Universal had hired GHOSTBUSTERS 2016 director Paul Feig to write, direct, and produce (with Laura Fischer) a monster movie called DARK ARMY, which would "include characters from Universal's classic monster library and original characters created by Feig." But all this time later, and with two drafts of the screenplay completed, Feig still isn't sure whether or not Universal will actually let him make DARK ARMY.

During an interview with Collider, Feig said, 

I’ve done two drafts and I love it, it’s one of my favorites scripts I’ve ever written. Universal, they’re not quite sure what they’re doing right now. Because Invisible Man did really well on a very micro budget, and my movie’s a little more expensive than that. So I’m hoping to God we get to make it, because I just absolutely love it. I’m so thrilled with it."

Feig went on to say that he doesn't consider DARK ARMY to be a horror movie. He "never wanted to make a horror movie", he wants to make a "true monster movie".

I love those movies of the 30s, the James Whale movies, [and] Bride of Frankenstein I still think is one of the greatest films of all time. So I want that tone because those movies were very fun. They treated them seriously, but you also know they were also having a lot of fun with them, so there are a lot of extreme characters in them and funny side characters. That’s what I want."

While the situations in the film will be "very real and serious", the interactions of the characters will be "fun and funny", and Feig wants to make the viewers invest in the characters.

To me, it’s about outsiders. Those monster movies, a lot of them were directed by gay directors, and I’ve read a lot about how these monsters represented outsiders in society and how they felt and all that. So that kind of realism and the emotions of it are very important to me."

Without any details on what the plot of DARK ARMY would be, it's tough for me to work up a lot of enthusiasm for this project, but I am curious to know more about the story Feig wants to tell here. Seeing how excited Feig is about the idea, I do hope that Universal will give him the greenlight.