Summary
James Wan’sremake of a Universal horror classic can finally bring a famous monster back to life after 40 years of development hell.James Wan’s moviesprimarily belong to the horror genre, though he’s dabbled in everything from thrillers (Death Sentence) to blockbusters (Aquaman). Wan famously burst onto the scene with 2004’s no-budget horror flickSaw, and over the years has terrified viewers with both theInsidiousandThe Conjuringmovies. According toThe Numbers, his directorial work alone has generated over $4 billion worldwide.
In short,not only is Wan one of the best horror filmmakers currently working, he’s also one of the most successfultoo. Wan’s horror pet projectMalignantmay haveunderperformed, but he shows no signs of exiting the genre anytime soon. He’s still producing TheConjurversefranchise and has an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’sCall of Cthulhuin development too. Before that, it appears Wan will try to crack a horror remake that has bested many other horror directors.
Every Upcoming Universal Monster Movie (& Which Were Canceled)
After a rough start with the Dark Universe, Universal is finally reviving its classic monsters. Here a look at every upcoming and canceled film.
James Wan’s Creature From The Black Lagoon Is Horror’s Most Cursed Remake
Wan’s next horror movie will resurrect a classic monster
… names like John Carpenter, Peter Jackson, Guillermo del Toro and Breck Eisner all came close to rebootingCreature from the Black Lagoon, but for various reasons, these versions all fell apart.
Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster and The Mummy are among Universal’s best-known monsters, with theGill-man (AKA the Creature)being one of the last to join that roster. In fact,theCreature from the Black Lagoontrilogy is considered the end of the original run of Universal Monsters, period. The original from 1954 followed an expedition into the Amazon to uncover evidence of prehistoric creatures, only to find themselves stalked by the titular Creature itself.
The film is a classic, but despite Universal having resurrected other creatures from its library like The Mummy or Dracula over the decades, aCreature from the Black Lagoonremake has proven elusive. It has been confirmed thatJames Wan is developing and in talks to helm a new take onCreature from the Black Lagoon. This is a sign that Universal expects big things from their update on the monster, but it also means the director is now taking on a notoriously cursed project.
Talk of a remake first came about during the early 1980s, whenAn American Werewolf in Londonhelmer John Landis wanted to produce a new version withoriginal director and sci-fi movie icon Jack Arnoldreturning. In the decades that followed, names like John Carpenter, Peter Jackson, Guillermo del Toro and Breck Eisner all came close to rebootingCreature from the Black Lagoon, but for various reasons, these versions all fell apart. With Wan taking over, it feels like it mightfinallyhead before cameras.
1954
Revenge of the Creature
1955
The Creature Walks Among Us
1956
Given that so many filmmakers have taken cracks at the remake, it’s slightly shocking it’s taken upwards of 40 years for it to come to fruition. In almost every case, theCreature from the Black Lagoonremake has been the victim of bad timing or shifting studio attitudes. The first attempt with Landis was supposed to focus on two creatures; one kind and one evil. This film was also intended to be shot in 3D, butonce Universal putJaws 3Dinto production, they canceled the Landis version, growing concerned about putting out two 3D creature features close together.
There was a time during the 1980s whenGremlinsdirector Joe Dante became attached to the project too. The most famous failed attempt at revivingCreature from the Black Lagoonhappened during the early 1990s, when genre icon John Carpenter came on board. Carpenter enlisted special effects legend Rick Baker to design and build the new Gill-man suit, and like his remake ofThe Thing, the film was set to be a gory, intense creature feature.
Mounting concern over the budget (and the waning popularity of horror itself) caused the studio to back out, and they instead offered Carpenter a remake ofVillage of the Damned.Peter Jackson later boarded the film in the late 1990s, but backed out for a remake of his favorite monster flickKing Konginstead; this production was later canceled, though a Jackson-helmed remake eventually arrived in 2005. Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters) briefly replaced Jackson, before exiting to focus on other films.
Guillermo del Toro was next in line, with a 2002IGNarticle confirming he was directing. The director would later explain that he dropped out onceUniversal rejected del Toro’s notion of telling the story from the Gill-man’s perspective and making it more romantic. Gary Ross - the son ofCreature from the Black Lagoonco-writer Arthur Ross - later hopped on, first as director and later as screenwriter. Ross was replaced by Breck Eisner, but this remake was ultimately derailed by the 2007-2008 Writers Strike.
Guillermo del Toro is a lifelong fan ofCreature from the Black Lagoonand loosely remade it as his acclaimed fantasy dramaThe Shape of Water.
James Wan Is The Perfect Choice To Update Creature From The Black Lagoon
Wan will finally reintroduce Gill-man to modern audiences
The Eisner/Ross version ofCreature from the Black Lagooncame very close to happening, but again, the timing just wasn’t right. There were later efforts after this, with the most recent being a proposedDark Universe moviereboot; of course,The Mummy 2017’sfailure killed off Universal’s ambitious shared monster universe plans. Coming back to 2024, it’s hard to think of a working director better suited toCreature from the Black Lagoonthan James Wan.
The most obvious proof of this are The Trench creatures fromAquaman, who were heavily inspired by the Gill-man design. More than that,Wan is uniquely gifted in crafting scenes of suspense and tension within big-budget farelikeThe Conjuring 2. Wan knows how to make crowd-pleasing movies that also never water down the scares. It’s a big ask for any filmmaker, but this blend of mainstream and creepy is exactly what a modernCreature from the Black Lagoonrequires.
Tom Cruise’s Mummy vs Gill-man sounds like a good time
During the 2010s, there was a major push from studios to develop cinematic universes in response to the MCU’s success. Some of these attempts succeeded (the Godzilla/Kong fronted Monsterverse) while many crashed and burned.Universal’s Dark Universe was one that failed and felt utterly ill-conceivedfrom the very beginning. The studio wanted to take their classic monsters and reconceive them as blockbusters filled with CG and explosions, but the poor reception of the Tom Cruise starringMummyreboot killed this universe off before it got started.
A cameo for Gill-man was scripted for 2004’sVan Helsing, but the sequence was later cut.
Still, Universal must be thinking of the franchise potential ofThe Creature from the Black Lagoon, especially if Wan’s remake is a hit. That’s also the fact that most of Wan’s horror output - be itSaw,InsidiousorThe Conjuring- have become hugely profitable franchises themselves. A shared monster universe in Wan’s very capable hands sounds intriguing, soassuming the Gill-man’s comeback clicks with audiences, Dark Universe 2.0 isn’t an outlandish possibility.
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Cast
Creature from the Black Lagoon is a Universal creature feature that sees a group of scientists on a mission in the Amazon, who soon find that they’re not alone. Roaming in the swampland with them is a mysterious humanoid creature with amphibious traits who becomes infatuated with a female scientist, but it’s appearance strikes fear into the hearts of the intrepid explorers, leading to grave danger as a result.
