In other Kurtzman news, just yesterdayit was announced that him and Chris Morgan (a writer and producer for the Fast & Furious franchise) would be developing a shared movie universe for Universal’s extensive and beloved catalog of monsters, which includes Frankenstein, Dracula, the Mummy, the Wolfman, the Invisible Man, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon, among others. According to Kurtzman, that particular endeavor is what he’s focusing on now, with plans to begin their shared monster universe with a reboot of The Mummy, which is currently expected for release in 2016:
“Front and center right now is Chris Morgan and I working on getting The Mummy off the ground and building up our Monster Universe. That’s where I’m spending my time…”
Earlier today, we heard that Guillermo del Toro has been approached a number of times to helm Universal’s remake of Frankenstein. When asked about whether he’d like to get del Toro involved, Kurtzman said:
“Nothing would make us happier. We’re only at the beginning exploratory phase of all of it, but I’m a crazy huge Guillermo del Toro fan. So, anything he wants to be involved in, we’d be honored.”
As far as the “big picture” for the Monster universe, Kurtzman explained:
“I think it’s incredibly important to all of us to start focusing on each movie, and make each movie great, rather than thinking, “Okay, we want to do The Avengers next.” If that comes along, it will come along organically. When I was a kid, going to Universal Studios, which was all I wanted to do, all the time, there was a show that was all the monsters, and I loved that show. I was obsessed with Dracula. I was obsessed with Frankenstein. I was obsessed with the Wolfman. This guy used to get stretched on a rack, live and in front of the audience. It was so cool. It’s very exciting. It’s like being a kid in a candy store, getting to play with all those things again, at the very studio that birthed these monsters, in the first place. Most importantly, we’re really wanting to just do each one right. I think the world will come to us, if we build them correctly. Some monsters will get their own movie. Other monsters will appear in other movies, as secondary characters. The balance of that is what we’re working on right now.”
Kurtzman is at least approaching the Monster universe with a level head, and taking a slower approach to building the cinematic world before jumping right into it. If only Sony had done the same thing with Spider-Man, perhaps things would be a lot less messy in that particular “shared” universe. Tell us, what do you think of Kurtzman’s comments about The Amazing Spider-Man franchise and the burgeoning Universal Monsters shared cinematic universe? Sound off in the comments below.
