dark universe

November 8, 2017

Universal: Never Mind That Whole “Dark Universe” Deal

Peter Paltridge dark universe, Horror, Movies, universal 0

Earlier this year, Universal Studios announced one of their biggest business ventures to date; a revival of the classic Monsters franchise they started back in the 1930’s. Jealous of Disney’s lucrative Marvel Cinematic Universe, they vowed to launch their own series of interconnected movies starring the Universal Monsters. It would be big and loud and epic and it would all fall under the banner touted at the beginning of last May’s first release: DARK UNIVERSE! Then that first film, a remake of The Mummy, actually opened. And public reaction couldn’t have been more apathetic. The launch film itself, a tepid and humorless Tom Cruise vehicle, didn’t impress critics or anyone else. Originally Universal had lined up a big slate of talent for their Dark Universe; now that talent is bailing. THR reported this morning that the main writer-producers behind Dark Universe, Chris Morgan and Alex Kurtzman, have officially left the project. Kurtzman will be focusing on television shows, while Morgan is returning to the Fast and Furious franchise. This, coupled

May 22, 2017

Universal Studios Announces The “Dark Universe”

Peter Paltridge dark universe, Horror, the mummy, universal 0

Next month Universal will introduce their latest take on The Mummy. It involves an ancient female princess, Tom Cruise, an airplane and explosions. Universal wants you to know that it’s just the opening to a gigantic cinematic world that will span dozens of movies….the DARK UNIVERSE! It’s like the MCU, only with monsters instead of superheroes, get it? This kind of over-optimistic estimation of success is becoming a problem for Hollywood lately (see the previous newspost for yet another example of this). What makes Universal think they can make really old movie monsters THIS successful again? Well….technically, they founded the original shared movie universe, way before Disney or Marvel thought of it. Back in the early days of cinema, Universal practically owned the horror genre. Their takes on Dracula, Dr. Frankenstein, the Mummy and other classic monsters defined how we view them to this day. Usually when pressed to make a vampire impression the average person will impersonate Bela Lugosi, even if he or she has never seen the film