With how badly ‘The Mummy‘ flopped and putting Universal’s entire “The Dark Universe” concept into a freefall, there are a couple of people being nominated to save it. Specifically, ‘The Shape of Water‘ director Guillermo Del Toro and producer J. Miles Dale. Del Toro was at one point in talks to work on it and may, in fact, be again. Not only that, but not helming the extended universe is his only professional regret at this time.
The conversation recently came up again with J. Miles Davis as to if the pair might be interested in working on the franchise and seeing if they had even been approached. According to Davis:
“We haven’t really talked about it. I’ve made seven movies for Universal and know and love them well, and they’re doing their own thing now after The Mummy. It’s interesting, Guillermo actually pitched them a version of this movie (The Shape of Water), of a remake of Creature, but I think at a certain point when they heard that the girl and the monster get it on, they were like, ‘OK, here’s your parking validation. You can go now.’ It’s a very strong IP (intellectual property) for them and they’re going to do whatever they want. It’s such a bigger project (for them), but we haven’t really talked about it. I know (Guillermo) has thoughts on all those movies. He’s got thoughts on Frankenstein, he’s had thoughts on Bride, and certainly he’s not going to be remaking Creature from the Black Lagoon now, I feel he’s done his version of that. But we haven’t talked about it and certainly wish them luck.”
It sounds as if Del Toro does have ideas for the characters but that they aren’t interested in pursuing his vision of them. Of course, who knows how much that may have changed after a few recent award ceremonies.
With the famed director still having “thoughts” about the characters you never know what could happen in the future. Unfortunately, I suspect Universal has already committed to their vision which has obviously not resonated with audiences and we’ll see the studio bury themselves by following through with at least another movie or two.
Do you wish that Guillermo Del Toro would be given the keys to “The Dark Universe” kingdom and be allowed to do what he wanted with them? Is ‘The Shape of Water’ the style which could bring the Universal Creature Features back to the forefront of modern-day storytelling? Share your thoughts below!
Source: Screen Rant
