James Gunn posted on Instagram that he pitched a Creature from the Black Lagoon film, but was turned down. The original 1954 Universal monster horror film is a classic. It follows an odd creature that conceals itself within the Amazonian jungle. A group of people head into its territory to contain the creature for research purposes. The classic went on to inspire two sequels titled Revenge of the Creature in 1955 and The Creature Walks Among Us in 1956.
Universal originally tried to create the Dark Universe, which would have been composed of modern interpretations of the classic monster films. After The Mummy performed so poorly both critically and at the box office in 2017, the collection of movies to come were cancelled. Fast forward to 2020, Leigh Whannell’s Invisible Man seems to have reignited interest in adapting these classics along, as the Blumhouse produced movie performed well financially and critically. There are several filmmakers who have wanted to be involved in these remakes and some will now get their chance.
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ComicBook.com pointed to Gunn’s Instagram story, where he posted that he was on his way home from set and was willing to answer any fan questions. After being asked which Universal monster movie he would remake, he responded Creature from the Black Lagoon. He said that he pitched it after working on the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead. Check out Gunn’s response below:
While Gunn posted about the pitch that was rejected, he did not go into detail about what his idea was or why they had turned it down. However, he is not the first to express interest in becoming a part of such a project. Universal is moving forward with several modern adaptations of the classic movie monsters, including Chloe Zhao’s (Nomadland) Dracula. The 2020 Invisible Man set a high bar for the rest to follow.
Since Universal has been eyeing a way to bring the Universal movie monsters into modern times for quite a while, it is possible that they had something else in development at the time when Gunn made his pitch. Coming off a high with his Dawn of the Dead remake certainly would have made a good case to hear him out. With Gunn putting his name out there, it is possible that Universal could consider him for a similar project in the future. Until then, audiences will have to wait and see what the studio decides to do with Creature from the Black Lagoon. For now, there seems to be more of a priority on some of the other movie monsters.
Source: ComicBook.com, James Gunn
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