Let's all laugh at the Universal Dark Universe

irl there are different tones guys idkwtsty

v true and it's refreshing to see a King Kong vs Godzilla movie that reflects that reality

alien vs dangermouse

would watch tbf

But it's also my understanding that they already kinda attempted this with Van Helsing (not to mention a slew of increasingly-unsuccessful crossover sequels back in the day).

they did it with dracula untold a couple of years ago and then when it tanked they were like 'lol j/k next one's the real start of the shared universe, for realsies this time honest'

If they had the imagination to update these as horrifying metaphorical ways to explore decaying infrastructure and police racism and despair deaths and random terror that plague our society, this could all be awesome, but that's not what they're going to do

can we start a petition to put tombot in charge of these pls

Never said I wasn't on board for alien vs dangermouse tbf I was just agreeing that it's weird

shame we're gonna have to wait for ridley scott to die before it happens

Frankly, I would love it if they ditched the conservatism and went for a bunch of wild and disparate styles with these things (e.g. a sleazy low-budget Cohen/Henenlotter-esque Wolfman, a taut and hyper-stylized political thriller Invisible Man, a crazy psychedelic neo-giallo Frankenstein) instead of the 'grey and foreboding boilerplate action movie with a single translucent coat of horror' template that they clearly will be using to punch these things out.

Wake me when we have Dracula vs. Kong.

universal also owns the rights to the fast and furious series, just sayin'

Frankenstein Drift

god i very badly wanna see vin diesel scrap with the creature from the black lagoon

FYI for those unaware, the next film in the saga is Bride of Frankenstein. Before they've made a Dark Universe version of Frankenstein, yes. And they apparently do have Phantom of the Opera and the Hunchback of Notre Dame lined up. I kinda don't even know what to say. Good luck, I guess?

I do hope that there's a slew of quickie rip-off adaptations of these public domain properties released around the same time that totally muddy the waters of this endeavor.

phantom and hunchback aren't even really canonical 'universal monsters' ffs

I do hope that there's a slew of quickie rip-off adaptations of these public domain properties released around the same time that totally muddy the waters of this endeavor.

ilx pre-covers the universal dark universe?

Why not! Dust off your camcorders, folks.

I want a movie in which Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, H. G. Wells, R. L. Stevenson, Victor Hugo, and Gaston Leroux are awakened from the grave to reclaim their intellectual property.

yes turn movies into the news what a great idea it will take no imagination at all

― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, June 6, 2017 8:16 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Right? When have monster movies or horror films ever dealt with the cultural zeitgeist or deep-seated social anxieties? The George Romero "Dead" movies were not in any way metaphorical, nor was the original "Godzilla."

"The Host" also had nothing whatsoever to say about American militarism and imperialism, it was just a monster movie and THAT'S ALL.

I mean, also, they'll probably manage to mess up the psychological metaphors that are there already in the classic films

By changing things around a bit but not enough, so as with most re-makes you end up with slop

^ Trenchant

wat if Frankenstein but made by isis

dotor jekyll but good 1 is bad

Who is the real monster, Frankenstein or that guy who made him whose name I don't know?

invisible man but he's partially visible

I have seen the Dark Universe, yawning,
Where the blockbusters cruise without aim;
Where they cruise in their "horror" unneeded, each ghost held aloft by a name.

Bride of Frankenstein, but also Frankenstein cuz she cannot decide on gender so he keeps taking out the stitches to swap out the junk.

Get thee to a Frankenhooker, Øystein.

omg

It's not quite what you describe but there are indeed some Frankensteinian gender-swapping hijinks in that acclaimed film.

universe where every1 is invisible xcept one guy and he is the visible man

Also it's Dark

"Truly, we humans were the real 'invisible man' after all."

"We have met the wolfman, and he is us."

'he who fights with universal monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a universal monster. and if you gaze long into a black lagoon, the creature also gazes into you'

"The only thing we have to fear is a dracula."

Knowledge is knowing that Frankenstein is not the monster. Wisdom is knowing that Igor is the bride.

lol @ bothering with this 'universe' crap for a load of long out of copyright characters

Ned probably started with that thread title, but crumpled it up

It was a process of experimentation

now i'm imagining ned working in the lab, late one night

Is anyone actually planning to see The Mummy?

*crickets*

even for slumming hollywood shit this is getting toxic reviews

It doesn't look even a little bit good or interesting. Universal's previous foray into Mummy-dom doesn't exactly give me any confidence that they're on the right track this time.

Not so much for the sake of enjoying a schadenfreudegasm (which is just a pleasant side-effect), but I kinda want this to die on the vine in the hopes that these studios will stop thinking they can grow some expansive franchise out of a single, untested seed.

i thought the first mummy reboot movie with brendan fraser was dumb fun, but there's nothing appealing about this one at all afaict

i only just found out russell crowe is in this as dr jekyll, which seems like a particularly egregious misuse of the shared-universe shoehorn

Whut

It's always been frustrating because I'm all about the classic/gothic horror aesthetic, it's probably 80% of the reason I like horror but there's really not that many good scripts in the films. And whenever there's a return to it, the stories are usually hackneyed. There's no reason you have to keep using those plots.

Whomp whomp

https://io9.gizmodo.com/apparently-the-new-bride-of-frankenstein-has-nothing-t-1819120817

As the story notes, it's likely going the deep prequel route instead...but is it?

The Dark Universe is dead, long live (to quote Variety) “a fresh strategy for the Universal monsters properties, bringing creative directors with distinctive visions to the classic characters.”

https://io9.gizmodo.com/a-new-invisible-man-film-rises-as-the-dark-universe-die-1832124202

Aw, does this mean we'll never get to see Seth Rogen as Lou Costello?

Can't wait to consume the fresh content generated by the Universal Synergisticdiversificationverse!

That shitty promo photo for this will never not be funny

Johnny Depp was the actor originally expected to play the Invisible Man, and though he is not thought to be part of this movie, Variety’s sources suggest it could happen in the future. The same goes for actors like Javier Bardem and even Cruise’s character: They could appear in future movies, but it’s not definite. For now, the idea is to encourage individual filmmakers to make great movies, and see what happens.

they will not appear in future movies

https://pixel.nymag.com/imgs/daily/vulture/2017/05/31/31-universal-monsterverse-dark-universe.w700.h700.jpg

Ah yes, all your faves - there’s the mummy of course, and the Dracula, and the wolf man, and that must be the Frankenstein sitting down there, and who’s that on the end? Oh, how could I forget, the black lagoon!

Oh no wait it’s five checked-out randos. Can’t fucking wait for them to cross over with each other.

Russell Crowe with the expression of a man who's come home to see an uncut lawn and a terrified son

That photo was edited together, iirc. Can't you just feel the chemistry?

I watched The Mummy and it's remarkable how they took a plot that was about 3/4 of a movie and then slapped half of a different film into the middle of it and still somehow only came out with less than a single complete work

I've never heard of this thing, just clicked on the thread in the expectation that it was about laughing at the universally dark universe we all live in and got to say I'm pretty disappointed

I was hoping for a debunking of dark matter a la string theory

Johnny Depp was the actor originally expected to play the Invisible Man

Let's all bow our heads in honor of Camaraderie's thirst for humorous anomie.

Johnny Depp was the actor originally expected to play the Invisible Man

Pretty sure Johnny Depp is already playing the Invisible Man in most movies. He's usually just walking around in the background and stuff, but you kind of have to squint.

xp

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--7EE3U59R--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/kmekc3hllxpgjts5yncg.jpg

I'm trying to think of a body of water that is hipper and fresher than the Black Lagoon.

― The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T & the Women (Old Lunch), Tuesday, June 13, 2017 12:16 PM (one year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The Creature from the Gowanus Canal? He's coming for your microbrews...and a hipster hottie in a vintage bathing suit?

In the meantime, the Invisble Man remake may have solved its Depp problem: https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2467738/the-invisible-man-reboot-may-have-found-its-first-new-star

I hope they cast her as the titular star and still bafflingly go with The Invisible Man as the title.

it's aliiiiiiiiive!

Elisabeth Moss, who was in early talks for Universal-Blumhouse’s The Invisible Man last month, is officially on board with the latest rendition of the classic monster character.

The project reps a re-team for Moss with producer Jason Blum after the recent $220M-global grossing success of Jordan Peele’s Us. Invisible Man will shoot in Australia. The opening weekend for Us became the highest-grossing ever for an original horror title.

And prompted by the wild success of an original horror title, we've opted to produce the 415th film adaptation of a 150 year old horror property.

laugh all you want, cynic, but i for one am excited about the possibility of elisabeth moss' invisible man going toe-to-toe with russell crowe's mr hyde and tom cruise's err whoever the fuck tom cruise was in the mummy

The Daddy?

https://media.giphy.com/media/l3q2MPtyq5CBzQcIU/giphy.gif