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Draft:The Creature from the Black Lagoon (upcoming film)

The Creature from the Black Lagoon
Directed byJames Wan
Screenplay bySean Tretta
Story byJames Wan, Rafael Jordan, Bryan Koyne
Based onCreature from the Black Lagoon
by William Alland
Produced byJames Wan
Production
company
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Creature from the Black Lagoon in an upcoming American horror film directed and produced by James Wan. The film is a contemporary retelling of the 1954 film of the same name produced by William Alland.

Production

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Development

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The project has been in numerous attempts to remake the 1954 film since the early 1980s. The proposed remake has gone through different phases of development by different writers and filmmakers.[1]

Early attempts (1982–2012)

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Advertisement from 1954

In 1982, John Landis wanted Jack Arnold to direct a remake of the film, and Nigel Kneale was commissioned to write the screenplay. Kneale completed the script, which involved a pair of creatures, one destructive and the other calm and sensitive, being persecuted by the United States Navy.[2] A decision to make the film in 3D led to the remake being canceled by producers at Universal, both for budgetary concerns and to avoid a clash with Jaws 3-D.[2]

In 1992, John Carpenter was developing the remake at Universal.[3] He originally hired Bill Phillips to write the script, while Rick Baker was hired to create the 3D model of the Creature, but the project never got the green light. Herschel Weingrod and Timothy Harris wrote a new script,[4] and Universal offered Peter Jackson the director's chair in 1995, but he chose to work instead on King Kong.[5]

In February 1996, Ivan Reitman was planning to direct the remake, but it never materialized.[4] With the financial success of The Mummy remake in May 1999, the development of the Creature from the Black Lagoon remake was revived.[6] In December 2001, Gary Ross signed on to write and produce the remake with his father, Arthur A. Ross, one of the original's writers. He told The Hollywood Reporter: "The story my father wrote embodies the clash between primitive men and civilized men, and that obviously makes it a fertile area for re-examination".[7]

In August 2002, Guillermo del Toro, a fan of the original feature, was attached to direct a remake.[8] He had hoped to do a story focused more on the Creature's viewpoint while also letting him have a successful romantic liaison. He later went on to turn this idea into the 2017 film The Shape of Water after Universal rejected the concept.[9] Because of these creative clashes and his commitments to many other projects, Universal dropped del Toro and hired Tedi Sarafian (credited on Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines) to write a script in March 2003.[10]

In October 2005, Breck Eisner signed on as director. He said to be a fan of the film: "As a kid, I remember loving Jack Arnold's original version of this film. What I really want to do is update an iconic image from the '50s and bring in more of the sci-fi sensibility of Alien or John Carpenter's The Thing (1982)".[11] Ross said in March 2007 the Gill-man's origin would be reinvented, with him being the result of a pharmaceutical corporation polluting the Amazon.[12]

However, the production was delayed by the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike; as a result, Eisner instead made The Crazies (2010), the number-one project on his priority list. His new goal was to finish The Crazies and then begin filming Creature from the Black Lagoon in Manaus, Brazil, and on the Amazon River in Peru. Eisner was inspired to shoot on location by the film Fitzcarraldo, and the boat set had been built. Eisner continued to rewrite the script, which was to be a summer blockbuster full of "action and excitement, but [still] scary". Eisner spent six months designing the new incarnation of the Gill-man with Mark McCreery (Jurassic Park, and Davy Jones' designer). The director said the new design was "very faithful to the original, but updated" and that the Gill-man would still remain sympathetic.[13] In 2009, it was reported that Carl Erik Rinsch might direct a remake that would be produced by Marc Abraham, Eric Newman, and Gary Ross;[14][15] however, a project featuring the ensemble had been abandoned by 2011.

In March 2012, Universal announced that a remake was in production and would simply be titled The Black Lagoon rather than Creature from the Black Lagoon to distinguish between the two versions. In October, the studio hired Dave Kajganich to write the film.[16] The film was expected to hit theaters by May 2014 but was ultimately canceled.

Reboot (2014–present)

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Universal Pictures, beginning as early as 2014, began developing a shared universe of rebooted modern-day versions of their classic Universal Monsters, with the studio having various films in different stages of development. The series began with The Mummy (2017) and was intended to be followed by the remake of Bride of Frankenstein in 2019 prior to the critical and commercial failure of The Mummy. The Creature from the Black Lagoon was a remake also intended to be developed within the reboot with a story written by Jeff Pinkner and a script written by Will Beall.

In June, Kurtzman revealed that the Gill-man in this film would be from the Amazon,[17] but on November 8, Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan moved on to other projects, leaving the future of the Dark Universe even further in doubt.[18] In January 2019, the Dark Universe film series was officially scrapped.[19] In 2020, Universal was considering Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans for a remake.[20]

In August 2024, it was announced that James Wan was in talks to direct a remake of Creature from the Black Lagoon.[21] Sean Tretta was reported to be set to write the screenplay based on a treatment by Wan, Rafael Jordan, and Bryan Coyne.[22]

References

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Footnotes

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Notes

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Citations

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  1. ^ Accardo, Brian (October 5, 2023). "A Timeline of Every Failed Attempt to Remake Creature From the Black Lagoon". MovieWeb. Valnet Inc. Retrieved August 30, 2024.
  2. ^ a b Murray 2005, pp. 154–156.
  3. ^ Archerd, Army "Olympics to cross finish line in style". Variety, July 19, 1992.
  4. ^ a b Archerd, Army. "Hiller relieved that noms weren't leaked". Variety, February 12, 1996.
  5. ^ "Recreating the Eighth Wonder". King Kong (3-disc Deluxe Extended Edition DVD), 2006.
  6. ^ Fleming. Michael. "Kornberg reups at U." Variety, May 20, 1999.
  7. ^ Linder, Brian (December 13, 2001). "Back to the Black Lagoon". IGN. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  8. ^ Linder, Brian (August 7, 2002). "Del Toro to Uni's Creature Redo". IGN. Archived from the original on October 19, 2008. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  9. ^ "Del Toro Talks Black Lagoon Influence On "Shape" - Dark Horizons". darkhorizons.com. November 5, 2017. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
  10. ^ Linder, Brian (March 11, 2003). "T3 Scribe Penning Creature". IGN. Archived from the original on August 18, 2012.
  11. ^ Snyder, Gabriel. "U's 'Creature' meets maker". Variety, October 19, 2005.
  12. ^ Cieply, Michael. "On screens soon, abused Earth gets its revenge". The New York Times, March 12, 2007.
  13. ^ Rotten, Ryan. "Exclusive: Eisner on Creature from the Black Lagoon Remake". Shock Till You Drop, May 2, 2008.
  14. ^ Fleming, Mike (December 14, 2009). "Creature to Feature Rinsch?". Variety. Archived from the original on August 22, 2010.
  15. ^ "'Creature from the Black Lagoon' Taps New Director for Revival". bloody-disgusting.com. Retrieved: March 23, 2015.
  16. ^ Kit, Borys. "'Creature From the Black Lagoon' nabs a writer (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter, October 12, 2012. Retrieved: March 23, 2015.
  17. ^ "Where The Creature From The Black Lagoon Monster Comes From In Universal's Dark Universe". Cinema Blend. June 6, 2017.
  18. ^ Kit, Borys; Couch, Aaron (November 8, 2017). "Universal's "Monsterverse" in Peril as Top Producers Exit (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved November 8, 2017.
  19. ^ Kroll, Justin (January 25, 2019). "'Invisible Man' Finds Director, Sets New Course for Universal's Monster Legacy (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Archived from the original on November 25, 2020. Retrieved December 15, 2020.
  20. ^ Rivera, D.J. "Chris Evans Reportedly Eyed For Creature From The Black Lagoon Remake". We Got This Covered.
  21. ^ Kit, Borys (August 12, 2024). "James Wan in Talks to Direct 'Creature From the Black Lagoon' Remake". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 12, 2024.
  22. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (September 30, 2024). "Atomic Monster & Universal's 'The Creature From The Black Lagoon' Sets Sean Tretta To Write". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved September 30, 2024.

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Works cited

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