Universal Pictures is a studio light on franchises, hence why they’re moving ahead with a sequel to the underwhelming Bourne movie starring Jeremy Renner and have decided to team with Legendary Pictures for a sequel to box office flop, Pacific Rim. Of course, they still have the Fast & Furious movies, while Jurassic World looks set to introduce a whole new generation of moviegoers to that franchise.
Regardless, the studio has now made the smart decision to take advantage of their library of classic and iconic movie monsters which includes the likes of Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolf Man, Creature Of The Black Lagoon, The Invisible Man, Bride Of Frankenstein, and The Mummy.
It was revealed last night that, “Universal is now dedicating renewed resources and an unprecedented, far-reaching commitment to revitalize its monster heritage.” In order to do this, they’ve enlisted the help of Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan to expand and unify a world featuring these classic characters; think the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but with Dracula teaming up with The Wolf Man instead of Iron Man fighting alongside or against the Hulk!
Dracula Untold is of course already on the way, but this interconnected slate of monster movies will apparently kick off with the reboot of The Mummy which is currently set to be released on April 22nd, 2016.
Alex Kurtzman (who recently split from writing partner Roberto Orci) is of course best known for contributing to Transformers, Star Trek and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Chris Morgan meanwhile is the writer behind five instalments of The Fast and the Furious, which has been Universal’s most reliably lucrative franchise.
There’s no word on whether either of them will be writing any of the movies, but they are in charge of enlisting talent to help bring many of these classic monsters to life on the big screen. Van Helsing is also mentioned as a candidate for a reboot, and how exactly they will all interact in the same shared universe remains to be seen…
