Will horror B-movie audiences finally get the remake they’ve been waiting on for decades? Universal is again looking to remake the 1954 monster movie “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” and this time they’re looking to the “Aquaman” director James Wan — someone who knows a thing or two about underwater battles and gill-men — to develop his own modern take, an individual with knowledge of the project told IndieWire.
Wan may direct too and is in early talks to tack on that responsibility. If he does, it would be his first project behind the director’s chair since merging his production company Atomic Monster with Blumhouse Productions.
Wan’s take, according to the individual, will be a grounded, modernized retelling, leaning into “visceral horror,” but it will still pay respect to the original. No screenwriter or talent is attached just yet. Atomic Monster will produce the film, with Wan as a producer. Atomic Monster’s Michael Clear and Judson Scott are executive producers.
“Creature from the Black Lagoon” is just one of the many vintage Universal monster characters that have been important to the studio to modernize and bring back to the big screen. Universal has successfully managed to remake others like “The Invisible Man” or the upcoming “Wolf Man,” but the studio — and countless directors — haven’t been able to crack this one.
Everyone from John Carpenter, Ivan Reitman, Gary Ross, and Guillermo del Toro wanted to do it. Universal envisioned bringing Gill-man back as part of the now laughably-maligned “Dark Universe” plan that fizzled out after the planned-franchise’s first entry, the Tom Cruise remake of “The Mummy.” The closest we’ve ever gotten to a new “Black Lagoon” is del Toro’s Best Picture winner “The Shape of Water,” which took an alternate, romantic take on the Gill-man’s affinity with a woman.
“Creature from the Black Lagoon” did earn a couple of sequels back in the day, and it was one of a wave of horror-thrillers to be shot in 3-D (though not the first!), even if most people just saw it in two dimensions. But “Black Lagoon” touted itself as being the first 3-D movie to try and film underwater. Eat your heart out James Cameron.
Wan’s last project in the director’s chair was last year’s “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” which pulled in a solid $434 million at the global box office but was a big step down from the over $1 billion the first “Aquaman” did.
Executive VP of production development Jay Polidoro will oversee the “Black Lagoon” remake for Universal.
James Wan is represented by CAA, Stacey Testro International, and Myman Greenspan Fox Rosenberg Mobasser Younger & Light.
