Universal crashed and burned on their first attempt to create a Dark Universe featuring some well-known monsters including Frankenstein, The Mummy and Dracula. Instead of making blockbuster movies with big stars headlining them then, they went the other direction with The Invisible Man. Produced by the notoriously frugal but successful Blumhouse, the pic was a hit thanks to director Leigh Whannell’s economical filmmaking and Elisabeth Moss’ fantastic performance.
And it appears that Universal liked the director’s work so much that they may bring him on for another monster movie. According to Deadline, Whannell is now in talks to direct Wolfman. The report says that he’ll also write the treatment for the film based on an original idea, with Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo penning the script.
Choosing Whannell here just makes sense for the studio. The Australian filmmaker’s had a fruitful history with Universal having worked on all of the Insidious movies in some capacity. In fact, he made his directorial debut with Insidious: Chapter 3 back in 2015. Then, three years later, he made the instant cult classic Upgrade.
The Invisible Man came next and based on that track record, the studio obviously feels he’s the right man for the job. If the idea is to restart the universe, who better to shepherd it than a young filmmaker with loads of talent?
Both Upgrade and Invisible Man were made for less than $10 million and yet, you can practically see every penny on the screen. He doesn’t cut any corners when making films and has a particular talent for shooting action sequences in a way that’s both coherent and visceral.
Meanwhile, Ryan Gosling, who’s set to star, has yet to make a superhero movie and doesn’t seem too interested in franchises. The fact that he’s passionate about this then must mean he feels there’s a lot of potential for something special with Wolfman. And adding Whannell into the mix just makes the whole thing even more exciting.
