Eric Heisserer talks inspiration for Van Helsing, shared monster universe

July 19th 2016, 9:40am

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

With Universal’s monster movie universe in development many have been wondering what monsters will get their time to shine, and what exactly will their modern interpretations be. Will the Wolfman use leave-in conditioner? Will Dracula suffer with diabetes? Will Frankenstein finally find a hat that fits? We do not know—until now. Well, sort of. I just did the whole “until now” bit for dramatic effect. But in reality, a bit of news did just drop about the direction one underutilized horror figure may be taking.

In an interview with Hitfix, co-writer of the new VAN HELSING movie, Eric Heisserer (writing along with Jon Spaihts) spoke about the inspiration for the modern iteration of the character in this big, bold, new world he will be living in:

I can only say that early on, our inspiration for his behavior and his mannerisms was all in MAD MAX.

As well, Heisserer divulged a bit more information about the style of the individual movies within the upcoming shared movie universe:

It’s early days right now. I can say that the decision that a lot of us made was to go and just write the best movie we could in our own corner and make sure it's good on its own…and didn't necessarily need to link arm-in arm-with anybody else. And to be tonally different from the other films. One may be a little bit more comedic, action-adventure-y, one can be very much a traditional horror piece. That kind of thing. And then we'll see what happens as the projects evolve and we all get a chance to convene and talk, and make sure the movies feel like they're all in the same world.

Though this news about making Helsing a roguish, one-man-wolf-pack character like Max is exciting, I think a surprising use of word choices on Heisserer’s end are “early” and “was”. Is this not the direction the studio wanted to go in when they pitched the piece? Has the story evolved from there, with the character taking on a whole new lifeform Heisserer can't talk about? If so, what form is that? How could it be better than Mad Max himself? Answer me! Whew, that was rough. Anyway, everything about the Universal monster movie universe beyond THE MUMMY is too early in development to have details on, but at the very least it's exciting to hear they're thinking out-of-the-box like this, and looking for inspiration in unexpected places. Just pray they don't tarnish Van Helsing like Stephen Sommers' 2004 werewolves-meet-Michael Bay outing. *shivers in torment*.

Universal's next monster movie, THE MUMMY, is out on June 8, 2017 starring Tom Cruise and Sofia Boutella.