Three years ago this week, Universal Pictures published a photo of a group of stars like Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp, Russell Crowe and Javier Bardem – the line-up of names they had set aside for their planned Universal classic monster shared continuity initiative “Dark Universe”.
Of course, the failure of the Cruise-led “The Mummy” reboot scuttled those plans very publicly and the studio abandoned the idea. Instead they are now pursuing standalone, cost-effective, auteur-driven works based on the properties with Leigh Whannell’s acclaimed 1990s psychothriller take on “The Invisible Man” launching earlier this year.
Another on the way is Paul Feig’s “Dark Army” feature and Feig recently spoke with Collider to offer an update on how the project is going. He says he has now completed two separate drafts of the film and it’s one of the best scripts he ever written:
“Universal, they’re not quite sure what they’re doing right now because Invisible Man did really well on a very micro budget, and my movie’s a little more expensive than that. So I’m hoping to God we get to make it, because I just absolutely love it. I’m so thrilled with it.
I love those movies of the 30s, the James Whale movies, [and] Bride of Frankenstein I still think is one of the greatest films of all time. So I want that tone because those movies were very fun. They treated them seriously, but you also know they were also having a lot of fun with them, so there are a lot of extreme characters in them and funny side characters. That’s what I want, I never wanted to make a horror movie. I want to make a true monster movie.”
Feig, who most recently helmed “Last Christmas” and “A Simple Favor,” also weighed in on the extended cut talk that has driven film twitter this week. He revealed his director’s cut of the 2016 “Ghostbusters” reboot clocked in at 210 minutes (down from the 255 minute editor’s first cut).
The film was ultimately cut down to 116 minutes for the theatrical release and 133 minutes for the extended cut. Feig says on Twitter that he would be “happy to share” his original long cut.
Feig’s “Dark Army” project joins Dexter Fletcher’s “Renfield” and Elizabeth Banks’ “The Invisible Woman” which are also in the works.
