Movies
‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’ Taps New Director for Revival
I’ve been dreaming of a big budget Creature from the Black Lagoon ever since it was rumored all of those years ago. While it looks like the creature may (finally) rise once again, I’m fearful that if The Wolfman tanks, so will this project. And if Wolfman is a terrible movie, what does that mean for our beloved Creature if the same studio is behind it? I shutter to think about it. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, who knows what the future holds, and Universal has hired a new director to replace Breck Eisner. Who is it? Read on for the skinny.
Universal Pictures is in early talks with Carl Erik Rinsch to direct “Creature From The Black Lagoon,” the remake of the 1954 U film about an undersea creature that terrorizes a scientific expedition.
Strike Entertainment’s Marc Abraham and Eric Newman produce with Gary Ross.
Deal would be the second big U picture for Rinsch, who will make his feature directing debut on “47 Ronin,” the epic period samurai swordsmen tale that takes place in 18th Century Japan, and will star Keanu Reeves. That picture is expected to begin production next year.
Rinsch shoots highly visual commercials for RSA owners Ridley and Tony Scott. The Scotts once courted Rinsch to direct a prequel to “Alien,” until Ridley Scott decided to helm that film, returning to a franchise he originated.
Universal has been keen to reprise “Creature,” one of its most famous monster franchises. In a previous incarnation, the studio had Breck Eisner attached to direct a script by Ross, whose father, Arthur A. Ross, co-wrote the original.
Universal has been having a hell of a time getting their Universal Monsters brand back on a better path in the wake of the Dark Universe collapsing, with four movies thus far released in the years since The Mummy attempted to get that interconnected universe off the ground.
First was Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man, to date the only post-Mummy hit for the Universal Monsters, followed by The Last Voyage of the Demeter, Renfield, and now Abigail. The latter three films have attempted to bring Dracula back to the screen in fresh ways, but both Demeter and Renfield severely underperformed at the box office. And while Abigail is a far better vampire movie than those two, it’s unfortunately also struggling to turn a profit.
Where does the Universal Monsters brand go from here? The good news is that Universal and Blumhouse have once again enlisted the help of Leigh Whannell for their upcoming Wolf Man reboot, which is howling its way into theaters in January 2025. This is good news, of course, because Whannell’s Invisible Man was the best – and certainly most profitable – of the post-Dark Universe movies that Universal has been able to conjure up. The film ended its worldwide run with $144 million back in 2020, a massive win considering the $7 million budget.
Given the film was such a success, you may wondering why The Invisible Man 2 hasn’t come along in these past four years. But the wait for that sequel may be coming to an end.
Speaking with the Happy Sad Confused podcast this week, The Invisible Man star Elisabeth Moss notes that she feels “very good” about the sequel’s development at this point in time.
“Blumhouse and my production company [Love & Squalor Pictures]… we are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” Moss updates this week. “And I feel very good about it.”
She adds, “We are very much intent on continuing that story.”
At the end of the 2020 movie, Elisabeth Moss’s heroine Cecilia Kass uses her stalker’s high-tech invisibility suit to kill him, now in possession of the technology that ruined her life.
Stay tuned for more on The Invisible Man 2 as we learn it.
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