With The Invisible Man proving to be a hit at the box office, Universal Studios is continuing their partnership with horror shingle Blumhouse Productions for a new take on the classic Universal monster Dracula. Jennifer’s Body director Karyn Kusama will be helming this new iteration which Hollywood Reporter states will be a modern day-set reinterpretation of the classic vampire story.
Joining Kusama on the project will be screenwriters Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay, who wrote the director’s last two films, Destroyer and The Invitation.
Currently, The Invisible Man, which stars Elizabeth Moss as a young woman menaced by the titular see-through antagonist, has earned just shy of $100 million at the worldwide box office against a modest $7 million budget.
Universal’s previous approach to their monster properties was to try and build an elaborate connected world for them to inhabit, similar to Marvel Studios’ superhero cinematic universe, and stock their films with big name stars. All that derailed though, when the first installment of the proposed series, The Mummy with Tom Cruise, underperformed at the boxoffice – $409 million worldwide off of a $125 million budget. Future plans for films like Bride Of Frankenstein with Angelina Jolie and Javier Badem and Johnny Depp as the Invisible Man were shelved.
But these days, Universal is focusing more on story than on star power. The studio met with numerous filmmakers and asked them for their takes on the classic monsters that helped to define the studio back in the 1930s and `40s.
Filmmakers developing films for Universal right now include Paul Feig with a project called Dark Army, Elizabeth Banks’ original pitch titled Invisible Woman which is not related to the current Invisible Man film, James Wan and a film with an undisclosed Universal monster character and producer Amy Pascal developing a new take on Bride Of Frankenstein. None of those projects are close to going in front of the cameras as of yet.
