In the era of reboots and remakes, if an attempt to bring back a franchise fails, it’s cool because you can just try again a few years later. Of even if it was successful, you can still reboot it, even if the next incarnation is a total disappointment (see "The Amazing Spider-Man"). And so it goes with Universal, who four years ago dropped the troubled "Wolfman" into theatres and watched it sink like a stone. So they’re giving it another kick at the can and have hired two dudes who know how to make blockbusters of varying quality, but consistent box office.
Alex Kurtzman ("Star Trek," the aforementioned Spidey series) and Chris Morgan ("Fast Five") have been tapped to over Universal‘s monster movie titles, in something that sounds suspiciously like they’re going to create a comic-book world style Marvel-verse. Deadline reports that the pair have "begun the meetings to put together an interconnected slate" of movies, kicking off with "The Mummy" reboot in 2016. The studio and these producers will "expand and unify a network of classic characters and stories" because everyone else is doing it too, so why not them? In short, a cohesive, connected way rather than as a series of stand-alone projects by disparate filmmaking teams.
Looking to take this one in "a cohesive, connected way rather than as a series of stand-alone projects by disparate filmmaking teams," it’s more follow-the-pack thinking from Hollywood, and while that makes sense because it’s been successful, it’s only a matter of time before audiences tire of being fed the same format and seek something new from the big screen experiences. And if anything, characters like Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolf Man, Creature Of The Black Lagoon, The Invisible Man, Bride Of Frankenstein, and The Mummy (all set to be rebooted) would benefit more from being taken individually, and played to their character strengths, rather than being homogenized for mass consumption. But then again, I’m not a big studio executive who has to make sure my next tentpole earns $500 million, so what do I know?
Until more news comes, here’s the The Onion’s interview with Chris Morgan because it never gets old.
These movies were unified already. Universal crossed Frankenstein, Wolf Man, and Dracula over in several sequels.
I'm happy with 'Penny Dreadful'.