James Wan in Early Talks to Direct New ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’

The horror expert would seem to be a solid fit for the Universal creature feature remake, and he’ll also produce the pic via his Atomic Monster company.

(Left) 'Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom' director James Wan at CinemaCon 2022. Photos by Eric Charbonneau. (Right) Scene from 1954's 'Creature from the Black Lagoon'. Photo: Universal Pictures.

Preview:

James Wan is in talks to develop a new take on ‘The Creature from the Black Lagoon’.
It’ll be another filmmaker-focused take on a classic from Universal.
Wan is also producing this movie among many others.

Long after it pivoted away from its plan for a connected “Dark Universe” of monster movies based on its classic titles, Universal has been seeing success (albeit mixed) with filmmaker-focused takes including ‘The Invisible Man’.

So it surely makes sense for the studio to have one of the biggest names in modern horror filmmaking and someone who has experience with watery stories ready to jump aboard a new version of ‘The Creature from the Black Lagoon’.

Which means we probably should all have predicted that ‘Saw’/‘The Conjuring’s James Wan, who also directed the two ‘Aquaman’ movies, would enter early talks for the movie.

Creature from the Black Lagoon

"From the Amazon's forbidden depths came the Creature from the Black Lagoon"

NR1 hr 19 minMar 5th, 1954

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What’s the story of ‘The Creature from the Black Lagoon’?

A scene from 1954's 'Creature from the Black Lagoon'. Photo: Universal Pictures.

The 1954 monster movie, made in the gimmicky and popular 3D format, told of a prehistoric water-breathing humanoid monster and the group of scientists that want to study him.

It was the among the last of the Universal’s great monster movies, combining an entrancing mix of horror, tragedy, and romance, and introduced audiences to the Gill-Man, aka The Creature who is the last of his kind.

Jack Arnold, director of sci-fi classics such as ‘The Incredible Shrinking Man’, directed the movie, which featured Julie Adams as the woman who caught the Creature’s eye.

Who else has dipped into making a new ‘Creature’?

A scene from 1954's 'Creature from the Black Lagoon'. Photo: Universal Pictures.

Hollywood has been trying to crack a new take on the Creature for years, with John Landis looking to produce an iteration in the 1980s, while John Carpenter and even Ivan Reitman developed takes in the 1990s.

Gary Ross took it on in the 2000s, intent on following in his father’s footsteps — Arthur A. Ross co-wrote the script for the original — as did Breck Eisner.

And Will Beall wrote a script for a version of the Creature that would have been a part of the Dark Universe concept.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Wan’s film would be a grounded, modernized retelling that will lean into visceral horror, while still paying respect to the original.

We’ll have to wait and see what happens with this latest attempt.

What else is James Wan producing?

(L to R) M3GAN, Gemma (Allison Williams) and Cady (Violet McGraw) in 'M3GAN,' directed by Gerard Johnstone. © 2023 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved.

Wan’s Atomic Monster company, which recently joined forces with Blumhouse, has a huge swathe of movies and TV series on the way, including a ‘M3GAN’ sequel, a spin-off to the killer doll movie called ‘SOULM8TE’ and a TV series called ‘Teacup’ based at Peacock.

Wan is also in development on a fourth installment of his wildly successful ‘Conjuring’ horror franchise, which he is describing as the final entry from the main storyline.