Universal Continues Its Monster Mash By Tapping James Wan To Develop A New Monster Movie

The Dark Universe is dead, long live the Dark Universe! While the shared cinematic universe started by “The Mummy” all the way back in 2017 died before it could even walk, the success of Leigh Whannell’s “The Invisible Man” may have given Universal a monster fever, as James Wan is reportedly teaming up with the studio to develop a new monster movie with “Supernatural” writer Robbie Thompson penning the script.

READ MORE: ‘The Invisible Man’ Gives 2020 Its First Horror Hit With $29M Opening [Box Office]

The scoop comes from The Hollywood Reporter, with a report that the film will be a modern monster movie with a story taking cue from Universal’s classic monster film legacy. According to the report: “With shades of Disturbia, the story will focus on a group of teens who discover that a neighbor is building a monster in his basement. Spoiler: the monster gets loose.”

This, of course, sounds an awful lot like a reimagining of “Frankenstein,” with a monster being built before it gets loose and starts wreaking havoc. Whether the film will be presented as an actual adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic remains to be seen, but after Leigh Whannell’s reimagining of “The Invisible Man” it could be argued that the way forward is to completely reimagine the classic monsters while keeping the spirit of the original alive. Sadly, the report has Wan produce this untitled movie, and not direct, and there is no news of a director just yet.

READ MORE: ‘The Invisible Man’: A Well-Crafted Horror With Some Very Visible Flaws [Review]

This untitled maybe-Frankenstein-but-maybe-not project joins other monster-related movies at Universal including Dexter Fletcher’s “Renfield,” Elizabeth Bank’s “The Invisible Woman” which is not connected to the recently-released film, and also Paul Feig’s “Dark Army” which is set to feature the classic Universal monsters. While we wait for more news, let’s all rejoice that from the ashes of the Dark Universe, a new and hopefully better Universal Classic Monsters Cinematic Universe (UCMCU?) will be born.