Fun Universal Monsters

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
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"Abbott & Costello meet the Creature From the Black Lagoon" Original broadcast date: 1954. The boys run into some famous monsters in this comedy bit from The Colgate Comedy Hour". with Norman Abbott, Glenn Strange as "The Frankenstein Monster" and Ben Chapman as "The Creature"



 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
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JASON BLUM WOULD LOVE TO RESURRECT UNIVERSAL'S DARK UNIVERSE


Gather round, boys and girls, and let me tell you the tale of the Dark Universe. ‘Twas a time when Universal Pictures thought it wise to kick-start a shared universe of monster movies akin to the Marvel Universe. Sadly those plans went down faster than Dracula next to garlic after the release of the dreadful THE MUMMY. Now the franchise seems deader than its characters, but one of the top producers today – Blumhouse’s Jason Blum (GET OUT, SPLIT) – seems very into the idea of taking the reins and ressurecting the franchise from its tomb.


Blum recently took to Twitter to hold an “Ask Me Anything” session, and of course, fans wanted to ask the producer of some of the biggest horror movies of the decade about all things horror. One person asked if he would be interested in taking over the handling of Universal’s Dark Universe, to which Blum had a very blunt, excited response.


https://twitter.com/jason_blum/status/1030316973643558914?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1030316973643558914&ref_url=http://www.joblo.com/movie-news/jason-blum-really-wants-to-take-over-universal-s-dark-universe-302-02


The idea of him taking over isn’t too far-fetched. He currently does a lot of business with Universal, as Blumhouse releases movies with them, along with having a first-look deal. Plus, right now plans for the DU seem to be at a standstill. Both Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan, the men in charge of spearheading the franchise, have bowed out, and not much has come from the planned movies starring the likes of Tom Cruise, Javier Bardem, Johnny Depp, Russell Crowe, Angelina Jolie and more.


When it comes to rebooting classic movie monsters Blum wants to bring more than the likes of Dracula and Frankenstein into his fold. He’s currently producing the reboot/sequel of HALLOWEEN (out October 19) and has apparently tried to get the rights to other franchises like Friday the 13th and The Crow.






 

johnnybear

Member: Rank 6
I enjoyed that Frankenstein video a lot but it got it's facts wrong a bit by saying that The Wolf Man was made in 1939 rather than 1941 among others!
JB
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Dracula-Frankenstein Combined 80th Anniversaries - 2011


EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: the combined 80th anniversaries of Dracula and Frankenstein from the Fox Theater Pomona in winter 2011 on the TV show "Out and About" with Roger Martin. Includes interviews with Sara Karloff, daughter of Boris Karloff, and Bela Lugosi, Jr., son of Bela "Dracula" Lugosi. Plus bonus footage at MONSTERPALOOZA in 2011 with interviews featuring sculptor Mike Micky Hill, proprietor Eliot Brodsky, Ricou Browning, the underwater Gill-man from 1954's Creature from the Black Lagoon, sculptor Brent Armstrong, Haruo Nakajima, who played Godzilla in the original Toho Studios films, and actress Dee Wallace.

 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
“Mummy” Reboot Director Talks Its Problems



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Universal Pictures’ plans for an interconnected ‘Dark Universe’ cinematic world effectively collapsed before they got started.

The initiative came together under the purview of Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan, with a writers room developing scripts for films based on characters like Van Helsing, The Wolfman, Bride of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, Dracula and more with actors like Javier Bardem and Johnny Depp even posing for an official photo.

Kurtzman got the ball rolling with the Tom Cruise-led “The Mummy” reboot which he directed. However, that film’s critical and commercial failure, a solid $409 million worldwide but a woeful $80 million domestic, ended everything.

Kurtzman has moved on, steering back to the “Star Trek” franchise which he helped reboot for the cinema in 2009 and now is in charge of its small screen ambitions with “Star Trek: Discovery”. Speaking about the second season of ‘Discovery’ ahead of its launch next week, the topic of “The Mummy” came up and he admits to THR he wasn’t happy with it:

“The Mummy wasn’t what I wanted it to be. I’m no longer involved in that [Dark Universe] and have no idea what’s going on with it. I look back on it now [and] what felt painful at the time ended up being an incredible blessing for me.

I learned that I need to follow my own instincts, and when I can’t fully do that, I don’t think I can succeed. Those films are beautiful because the monsters are broken characters, and we see ourselves in them. I hope those are the movies that they make; I want to see them.”


For now Universal hasn’t made clear when it intends to try and get new adaptations of its classic monsters franchise going. The success of rival Warners’ Monster-verse blending the “Godzilla” and “King Kong” franchises however show it is possible.
 

chainsaw_metal1

Member: Rank 8
There were two things going against The Mummy. A) They tried to inorganically force a cinematic universe, which cannot be done. Marvel got it done through trial and error. WB and DC tried, and it didn't work because they rushed it. The original Universal monsters weren't meant to be a shared universe, but through a decade and a half of making individual movies, they were able to work them into movies in a creative way. B) Tom Cruise. Many of those behind the scenes have said that he had too much control over the movie, and the end product was an overly dramatic action piece that doesn't work as action or horror. Funnily enough, I rewatched the 99 film recently, and what works is that it doesn't take itself seriously. Same with the sequel (the third film isn't terrible, but it doesn't fit with the first two, and the absence of Rachel Weisz hurts it).
 
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