He ain’t afraid of no ghosts! Or monsters! Following his lackluster ‘Ghostbusters’ reboot, director Paul Feig is headed back into the world of the supernatural for his picture, ‘Monster Army’. The film will be developed at Universal, home of the classic Universal Monsters, meaning some familiar faces may pop up. Reportedly, Feig will mix classic monster characters with some originals. He will write, direct, and produce along with Laura Fischer through his Feigco Productions, which is based out of Universal.
Universal spent million attempting to craft the Dark Universe of interconnected modern movies, based on its famous monster catalog, but both attempts– 2014’s ‘Dracula Untold’ and 2017’s ‘The Mummy’— failed at the box office. It appears that Universal has abandoned the Dark Universe, which would have been made up of big-budget PG-13 summer “blockbuster” films, and have gone in the opposite direction, by enlisting low-budget horror masters Blumhouse to develop lower-priced movies that would up the scares. Leigh Whannell’s ‘The Invisible Man’ will be the first entry in that experiment. We’ll see if that works out when it opens on February 28, 2020.
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Universal has brought their famous monsters together in more humorous films, with the most famous being 1948’s ‘Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein’, which despite its name, also featured Bela Lugosi as Dracula, and Lon Chaney as the Wolfman. That was followed by ‘Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man’ (1951), ‘Abbott and Costello Meet Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde’ (co-starring Boris Karloff, 1953), ‘Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy’ (1955), and more.
In 1987, Universal released ‘The Monster Squad’ in which a group of ‘Goonies’-like tweens teamed up with Frankenstein’s monster, against Dracula, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Mummy, and The Wolfman. That movie flopped but is a cult favorite.
Feig’s next movie will be decidedly un-spooky– romantic comedy ‘Last Christmas’, starring Emilia Clarke, Henry Golding, and Emma Thompson. He has also directed ‘Girls Code’ an original movie for Freeform. He is attached to direct a sequel to ‘The Heat’, his 2013 comedy hit which starred Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock, so it remains to be seen if he will tackle that before or after ‘Monster Army’.
Stay tuned for details as they emerge.
Source: Deadline
