Shared Universe for Classic Movie Monsters On the Way

Recently, Universal set out on a course of rebooting their line of classic movie monsters such as Frankenstein's monster, Dracula, and the Mummy. Their first act was hiring ex-creative partners Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci to spearhead this effort, and the plan they hinted at was to create a cinematic universe similar to what Disney has done with The Avengers. And now that plan is going into effect courtesy of the folks who brought you Transformers and The Fast and the Furious.

Alex Kurtzman, a writer on Star Trek and two of the Transformers movies will be teaming up with Fast & Furious franchise writer/producer Chris Morgan to craft an "interconnected slate" of monster flicks beginning with 2016's The Mummy reboot. Len Wiseman had been attached to direct that film but he dropped out and now it seems to be in a state of flux. Also considered to be part of the group of classic creatures up for a redo are The Invisible Man, Bride of Frankenstein, and The Creature from the Black Lagoon, basically every monster that made up Universal's popular run of horror films in the 1920s through the 1950s.

If recent history is any guide Universal have a tough road ahead of them. It wasn't that long ago they attempted a remake of The Wolfman led by Benicio Del Toro and audiences stayed clear. The Mummy franchise, once lucrative in the days of Brendan Fraser (how often you hear something like that??) are now just a bunch of lame straight-to-DVD spinoffs. It's also unclear if the Van Helsing remake, which once had Tom Cruise attached, is a part of this whole deal.

A better gauge for how this could turn out will be the performance of Universal's Dracula Untold, starring Luke Evans and opening October 17th. [Deadline]