While Warner Bros. is gearing up to take the next step forward in their new cinematic universe with Kong: Skull Island set to stomp into theaters next month, Universal is also putting together a shared universe featuring many iconic monsters, though it’ll be quite different. Rather than boasting larger than life beasts like King Kong and Godzilla, it’ll feature popular characters such as the Mummy, Wolfman, Invisible Man, Dracula and more.
These guys may not stand 100 ft. tall like the ferocious creatures headlining Warner Bros.’ efforts, but that doesn’t make them any less scary, and in a recent interview with Collider, writer Eric Heisserer, who’s penning the Van Helsing remake alongside Jon Spaihts, was quick to drive that point home. When asked what he had planned for the project, here’s what he had to share:
“I don’t know what it’s going to look like at the end of the process, so I’m gonna withhold on commenting on really where it lands. I can say that my intent stepping in was to make it as scary as possible, partly because I know how to do that, and also because when you’re the only human surrounded by a bunch of supernatural creatures, that’s gotta be absolutely unnerving.”
Set in the present day and said to be inspired by Mad Max: Fury Road, it’ll be interesting to see how this take on Van Helsing differs from the one that Hugh Jackman led back in 2004. If nothing else, it should most certainly benefit from Heisserer’s horror sensibilities. The scribe has more than proven himself in the genre and if he says he’s going to make the film scary, you better believe he will.
While the original Van Helsing didn’t exactly get the best critical reception, it’s a mostly harmless action/adventure flick that offers up enough fun to make it worth a watch, even if it is way too over-reliant on CGI. That being said, the character definitely deserves another chance on the big screen, as the 2004 version could have been a hell of a lot better. As such, we’re pretty excited to see both this new take on the legendary vampire hunter and how Heisserer plans on scaring us with it.
