Rumor: James Wan Linked To Remake Of ‘The Creature From The Black Lagoon’
The one Universal Monster to avoid the reboot or dreaded ‘reimagining’ treatment since his last few swims – way back in the 1950s, mind you – may finally get reeled in for an update by a modern master of horror.
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The latest scoop from Daniel “RPK” Richtman, as reported by World of Reel, states that The Creature From the Black Lagoon will be revisited by James Wan, director of the Aquaman films and creator of the Conjuring Universe.
WoR says, “Wan is set to direct ‘Creature From the Black Lagoon’ for Universal. This is a remake of the 1954 classic which tackled a strange prehistoric beast lurking in the depths of the Amazonian jungle and the group of scientists who try to capture the animal to bring it back to civilization…”
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It’s added that Aquaman scribe Will Beall will write the script which WoR seems to think shall be set in the same world as 2020’s The Invisible Man and the upcoming Wolfman. While that’s possible, those films are standalone despite being directed by Wan’s peer Leigh Whannell.
Every horror film based on a Universal Monster IP the studio has released in the last four years has avoided a shared continuity due to the debacle that was the Dark Universe.
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The Creature or Gill Man was a postwar entry in the Monster canon but was embraced all the same with Lon Chaney’s Wolf Man, Bela Lugosi’s Dracula, and Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein. However, his legacy as a franchise player doesn’t extend far beyond his trilogy in the 1950s.
Attempts were made throughout the years to resuscitate him and let the Creature walk among us again. Aside from an unrelated appearance by a Gill Man type of beast in The Monster Squad, a remake being developed for the 80s stalled.
Peter Jackson had his choice of properties to adapt as his reputation grew, but he went with King Kong over the Creature. James Gunn, maybe hoping to fill a void, had an unspecified pitch for a Black Lagoon movie that the studio ultimately balked at, so he moved on.
The closest we came to a remake until now was The Shape of Water, which dealt with similar material that was inspired by it but not officially tied to Creature From the Black Lagoon.
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