Universal Maps Out The Ultimate Monster Mash!

In modern Hollywood, the franchise is everything. If there’s a successful model everyone wants to copy, it’s the tiered platform approach of Marvel Studios. Since Iron Man debuted in 2008, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (owned by Disney) has reaped insane billions of dollars. Buoyed by the impending arrival of a whole new crop of Star Wars films, Disney-driven franchises will be dominating the box office for years to come.

Understandably, other studios are trying to copy that model, with Warner Brothers intent on major franchise-building with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, the massive gamble they hope will lead to positioning a subsequent Justice League movie as their own Avengers.

Which brings us to Universal, whose only comic superhero property is Marvel’s Namor: the Sub-Mariner, which they still have the rights for. What’s a studio to do? Seeing a connection between heroes and monsters, Universal is embracing the horror of its roots in a major way, positioning a three-part scare strategy in an effort to carve out their unique share of the future box office landscape. Looking back to the days of Carl Laemmle and the “Universal Monsters,” the studio will reinvent their classic monsters as action movie franchises, giving Dracula, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, Frankenstein and The Creature From The Black Lagoon, a new lease on life in a series of interconnected  monster-centric action movies, in a bid to create a new cinematic universe. Universal has tapped Transformers and Fast & Furious screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan to develop a world of intertwined classic monster storylines. The first of these will be The Mummy in June 2016, with Kurtzman directing. Universal has tried reimaging these properties before, with Stephen Sommers’ The Mummy with Brendan Fraser, Van Helsing with Hugh Jackman and The Wolfman with Benicio Del Toro. What Universal is attempting now is a much deeper, more long-term strategy. The wrinkle is that many of these monster properties like Dracula and Frankenstein are in the public domain, so there will be plenty of competition from films like this October’s Dracula Untold (yes, released by Universal) and Victor Frankenstein (Fox)to potentially steal some of the initiative’s thunder and dilute their brands. They’ve also announced Skull Island for 2016, with Legendary Pictures, featuring the return of King Kong. Universal will distribute, through their first-look deal with Legendary, which also includes As Above, So Below, Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak and Warcraft.

So that’s part one – part two saw Universal acquire the rights to Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles for Brian Grazer and Imagine Entertainment, with Kurtzman and Roberto Orci producing. The deal includes Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, The Tale of the Body Thief and Prince Lestat, being published later this year. Interview has been shot previously at Warner’s with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, as was their Queen of the Damned misfire. With the Rice properties, the studio envisions a chance to fill the Twilight void and capture female audiences looking for more tortured, romantic vampire stories. It’s not clear if an outright remake of Interview is part of this strategy.

For part three, Universal signed a decade-long first-look deal with low budget horror producer Jason Blum, responsible for some very profitable horror franchises, including Paranormal Activity, Sinister, Insidious and The Purge.  Blum has done a great job at capturing the young male box office, though the franchises have been uneven performers. He’s also developing a remake of The Sentinel.

Whew! That’s enough horror and beastliness to raise the spirit of Forrest J. Ackerman! Beyond a doubt this is exciting stuff to contemplate. As someone who always loved monsters as a boy and who loves them even more as an adult, because they represent the different – the misunderstood – I’m thrilled to imagine these classic forces of the subconscious getting a new chance to run and play. Of the three strategies outlined above, it’s the first one I’m most excited by – and the one that may be the hardest to pull off. Can brutes and monstrosities resonate with audiences the way Captain America can? Is there vision enough behind these reimaginings to prevent the next I, Frankenstein? Can Universal successfully cross-pollinate this disparate of an array of mythologies and not end up with an inadvertent sequel to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? I like to think that they can. But finding success in a plan this daring will take more than strategy and release dates – it will take vision. Universal needs to find filmmakers for whom these iconic monsters actually mean something. They would do well to pay attention to what Disney’s doing with Star Wars right now – hiring directors like Rian Johnson, Gareth Edwards and Josh Trank. Younger filmmakers representing fresh perspectives who’ve had to put creativity ahead of budget – though those days are gone now, fellas! It’s a little bizarre to see some of these world builders staking a claim on release dates as far out as 2020, but this is where we’re heading. It’s fun to think of new generations discovering the classic monsters of old – but I can’t help but wonder how much they’ll be changed, in the mad dash to keep up with Iron Man and the Jedi Knights. Here’s hoping they don’t lose the spark of what made them monsters in the first place.