The Dark Universe may be dead before it barely had a chance to breathe, but the Universal stable of classic monsters lives on. After the recent success of Leigh Whannell and Jason Blum’s The Invisible Man, which flipped our perspective and gave Elisabeth Moss another superb role, Blumhouse has now announced their next take on the monster movie.
THR reports that a Dracula film is now in the works with Karyn Kusama on board to direct and her collaborators Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay will write the script. Coming off Destroyer and The Invitation, the filmmaking team has not revealed any more details on what form this film may take, but we imagine it’s less Van Helsing and more of a grounded, visceral approach if Kusama’s previous films are any indication. Luke Evans last lead a live-action take on the Count Dracula character with 2014’s Dracula Untold, in case you totally forgot (as I did).
“It’s really hard to get people to the movie theater and one of the things that they clearly respond to are known IP, to a certain degree. So I like to use IP as a shell to tell original stories,” Jason Blum recently told Bloody Disgusting, giving a promising hint at what the future holds for this monsterverse.
While Universal is not on board quite yet with the project, Blumhouse’s first-look deal with the studio means it’s likely they will pick it up. Universal also recently announced another monster movie is in the works with James Wan, but no additional details have been revealed.
In the meantime, check out our extensive discussion on The Invisible Man below.