News
Kevin Smith Wants to Direct Universal’s ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’
Universal Studios’ Dark Universe is off to a rocky start. Rumors say that the Dark Universe production offices are a ghost town with most of the projects being “postponed or “possibly canceled.” The future for Universal to establish a monster cinematic universe looks grim.
However, not everyone is so pessimistic towards the possibilities of Dark Universe. Writer and director Kevin Smith spoke about his interest in tackling one of the Universal monsters on his podcast Fatman on Batman. Smith goes on to say:
“I’ll do one! If they want me to do Creature from the Black Lagoon. I would do that in a fuckin’ heartbeat! That would be amazing. I don’t know what the story would be, but I would tell you this much Creature from the Black Lagoon from the guy who made TUSK at the budget of TUSK? I would see that fucking movie. Then again, I saw TUSK too and I was alone when I saw it so…”
Most of the mainstream movie audience may know Kevin Smith as more of a personality from his many convention and Q&A appearances, as well as for his slicker comedies such as Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and of course the movie that started it all; Clerks. Yet what you may not know is he has experience, passion and the ability to craft a solid creature feature. His off kilter modern Kafkaesque horror tale entitled Tusk is proof of that.
What originally began as a classified advertisement on a home rental website for a man seeking out an nontraditional roommate. This roommate would have to dress up like a walrus. Suffice it to say, the wheels in Smith’s head began to turn wildly as he conversed with his co-host Scott Mosier on their podcast, SModcast, about the ad. Fleshing this idea out in a haze of medicinal marijuana and just pure Smith genius the idea for Tusk was born!
While Tusk is more of a dark comedy, Smith is not afraid of diving into dark realms. The director has tackled material that has been more serious than comedic, such as his 2011 movie Red State. Red State, featuring the late and great Michael Parks, focuses on a fanatical religious cult who deal with those who do not see eye to eye with their world view in particularly gruesome ways.
Given the damsel in distress scenario that is so indicative of the old school Universal films and the era they were originally released in, Smith would need to sharpen up the dialogue – something he does very well. His love of Spielberg’s Jaws would further strengthen some of the areas where a possible remake would become more of an action flick as opposed to a small, unsuccessful dark thriller. If anyone could breathe life into and resurrect the Dark Universe my money is on Smith.
For more on Universal Studios’ Dark Universe, click here
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Movies
‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening
Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.
Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.
Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.
Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.
Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.
The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.
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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date
Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.
Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.
These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:
According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”
Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.
Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.
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Movies
Trailer for ‘The Exorcism’ Has Russell Crowe Possessed
The latest exorcism movie is about to drop this summer. It’s aptly titled The Exorcism and it stars Academy Award winner turned B-movie savant Russell Crowe. The trailer dropped today and by the looks of it, we are getting a possession movie that takes place on a movie set.
Just like this year’s recent demon-in-media-space film Late Night With the Devil, The Exorcism happens during a production. Although the former takes place on a live network talk show, the latter is on an active sound stage. Hopefully, it won’t be entirely serious and we’ll get some meta chuckles out of it.
The film will open in theaters on June 7, but since Shudder also acquired it, it probably won’t be long after that until it finds a home on the streaming service.
Crowe plays, “Anthony Miller, a troubled actor who begins to unravel while shooting a supernatural horror film. His estranged daughter, Lee (Ryan Simpkins), wonders if he’s slipping back into his past addictions or if there’s something more sinister at play. The film also stars Sam Worthington, Chloe Bailey, Adam Goldberg and David Hyde Pierce.”
Crowe did see some success in last year’s The Pope’s Exorcist mostly because his character was so over-the-top and infused with such comical hubris it bordered on parody. We will see if that is the route actor-turned-director Joshua John Miller takes with The Exorcism.
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