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Universal Monster Shares Universe

  • 02-11-2016 9:00pm
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,767 ✭✭✭


    Couldn't find a thread on this so here goes:

    http://screenrant.com/van-helsing-modern-day-reboot/
    But it is still a very romantic departure from the character as incepted in Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula, where [he] was a Dutch doctor who figures out a very surprising answer to an odd medical question. This is a monster hunter with encyclopedic knowledge. It’s set in the present day and it’s just filled with good stuff I’m not allowed to talk about.

    I'm not comfortable with the above statement as it sounds a fair bit like they're going down the same route as with the Jackman film. Van Helsing might of "happened" on Dracula but the impression was very much that he had a specific knowledge of the vampire curse. Being a "monster hunter" is fine but his primary purpose should be interwined with vampire mythology, much like Buffy is a VAMPIRE slayer who will also take on other threats as they arise. That's what stops him from becoming generic.

    Anyway as an aside, other info available is that the universe "officially" begins with The Mummy starring Tom Cruise and Sofia Boutella. Invisible Man, Frankenstein's Bride, Dr. Jekyll (Russell Crowe) and the Wolfman seem to be the other players.

    Dracula is surely a player but there's a question mark over him due to Dracula Untold (2014). It hasn't been officially dismissed as being outside of this new universe but only recently Luke Evans has stated he hasn't heard anything. Couple that with the general silence in regards to the DU question seems to suggest DU will be discarded.

    That being said, the suggestion from the article that DU wouldn't fit with a modern day setting given the
    ending of the film
    is inaccurate.


Comments

  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 36,711 CMod ✭✭✭✭pixelburp


    It's all a fairly obvious & shameless attempt by Universal to cobble together their own 'shared universe' suite of films, and with a starting point that cynical and money-grubbing, it can be hard to induce passion in crafting something so ostensibly contrived. Without checking the numbers, I don't even think Tom Cruise is that much of a box office draw anymore


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,933 ✭✭✭McLoughlin


    pixelburp wrote: »
    It's all a fairly obvious & shameless attempt by Universal to cobble together their own 'shared universe' suite of films, and with a starting point that cynical and money-grubbing, it can be hard to induce passion in crafting something so ostensibly contrived. Without checking the numbers, I don't even think Tom Cruise is that much of a box office draw anymore

    To be fair Frankenstein and Wolf Man back in the 1943 crossed over in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man and in the 1940's they had the House of ... films which was all the main monsters in one movie.

    No doubt the new gimmick of "shared universe" is influencing the studio but they did have the idea back in the 40's towards to end of the Universal Monster films run before they moved into the sci fi direction in the early 1950's.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,767 ✭✭✭Ben Gadot


    I do find the idea mildly interesting as it's up my street. Dracula Untold had way too clean an aesthetic with a non existent atmosphere to make it work (though I did have little moments that were good such as the cave scenes), so I wouldn't have a problem with it being discarded.

    I'm also tired of the Dracula as tragic figure trope, so I wouldn't mind seeing his role shift into the territory of major foe.


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