Just when you think the Dark Universe is finally dead, it rises from the grave in search of more audiences to disappoint and annoy. Or at least, that’s what I’m taking away from Max Landis’ hint on Reddit that he’s currently developing a remake of the 1954 classic, Creature from the Black Lagoon.
Universal’s been keeping this project on the back-burner for a while now, with indications that it would eventually form part of their abortive Dark Universe. That whole endeavor was dead and buried after The Mummy cratered back in 2017, though, with the studio announcing that they weren’t going forward with it.
Now, while they might be ditching the shared concept angle, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re abandoning all the individual productions. After all, how connected to a wider plotline does a story about scientists being menaced by a fishman deep in the jungle really need to be?
Of course, one thing standing in the way of any Creature from the Black Lagoon remake is that we’ve just had the Oscar-winning Shape of Water from Guillermo Del Toro, whose central monster was inspired directly by the 1954 Gill-Man and went both flippers in to the woman/fish romance that the old film could only hint at.
Then again, you may argue that the public clearly has a hitherto untapped appetite for watching women get freaky with fish-monsters right now, so this is the perfect time to resurrect one of the best creature features of the 50s. We’ll leave that one to you.
Aside from this, there was also another update where Landis hinted that he’s still working on a remake of his father, John Landis’ 1981 classic An American Werewolf in London (a film well worth watching if you like pitch-black comedy and Britain looking incredibly scummy). It’s questionable whether that needs to be remade, but we’ll keep you posted on whether either of these two projects ever moves towards full production.
