Add writer Ed Solomon (‘Men in Black,’ ‘Now You See Me’) to the list of people no longer attached to Universal’s Dark Universe. In a recent interview, Solomon revealed he is no longer involved in writing the ‘Invisible Man.’ After the failure of ‘The Mummy‘, the scribe is the latest part of the creative team which will be leaving the franchise after lead producers Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan bowed out late last year. At this time we believe that Johnny Depp is still attached to star, but the entire franchise is in flux after the financial and critical challenges the freshmen film came up against at the box office.
The reason given for Solomon’s departure appears to be from creative differences:
“At the end of the day, I think Universal and I had a different idea of what the movie was gonna be. We began thinking that our notions would meld, and I should’ve listened more closely to what they really were wanting.”
While Universal may have originally wanted to go with the film that Solomon was pitched to write, it may not be what they have in mind now:
“I think Universal has had to come to a kind of reckoning of, ‘What are we doing with the Dark Universe?’ and, ‘What is our real intention with it?’, and I think they’re reconfiguring it now, which I think is probably good.
So I’m not working on it.”
What that means for the movies going forward is still uncertain. Taking these iconic horror monsters and turning them into generic action-adventure films wasn’t the way to go in ‘The Mummy’ so it should interesting to see if they double down on that theme or dive head first into horror with the sophomore release. At least this is some confirmation that Universal’s Dark Universe is not completely dead.
Are you sad to hear that Ed Solomon is no longer attached to write ‘Invisible Man’? What do you think is happening with the studio “reconfiguring” what they want to do with the franchise? Share your thoughts below!