When Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman came on board to produce Universal’s latest versions of VAN HELSING and THE MUMMY, it was assumed their track record as producers and writers of genre films and television shows was the reason. It now turns out that the studio is looking to make something a little bigger in scope than just mere retreads.
In an interview with IGN, Orci shared what the vision is with VAN HELSING and THE MUMMY and the other Universal Monster characters they will have at their disposal:
“There’s an interesting thing that could happen at Universal where they have this amazing library of their old monsters and these kinds of heroes, and the idea of trying to create a universe. Van Helsing, and we’re also producing The Mummy for them. We’re kind of imagining updating these kinds of things. You don’t want to just make remakes when you’re doing a thing, unless it’s worthy of being a remake, but when you have an idea for something that can actually be made different and yet be true to what it was. We just had a notion of how to make it modern and have a slightly different tone. It’s not going to be just a remake.”
With Stephen Sommers take on VAN HELSING, we saw Dracula and Frankenstein debut in a connected movie that also featured a werewolf and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It sounds like Orci and Kurtzman are going to go for standalone films that interconnect in a possible big film showcasing everyone. I love the idea of this, but I also loved it when they attempted it with VAN HELSING only to be greatly disappointed by the cheesy final product.
I don’t hate on Orci or Kurtzman as many do, so I am still optimistic this will turn out as a kick ass concept, but I will be cautious after seeing how poorly the Hugh Jackman film was handled.
