Universal Pictures Preparing to Battle the Comic Book Giants With Its Dark Universe

Juan James

8 years ago

Film companies are no longer content on creating singular films. Instead, nowadays, it’s all about developing universes in which all the films are connected in some way. The Marvel Cinematic Universe kick-started all this, with recurring characters appearing across multiple films. For instance, Scarlett Johansson’s character Black Widow has starred in Iron Man 2 and both Captain America sequels along with the Avengers flicks. DC Comics has decided to follow suit with Justice League and its superheroes such as Batman and Superman. Now Universal wants to get in on the act, and plans to create a classic monsters cinematic universe called the Dark Universe, starting with The Mummy (see video below) this year.

Universal Pictures hope that with Tom Cruise playing the lead role in this year’s reboot of the classic 1932 version of The Mummy, mass audiences will instantly have a vested interest in the series and seek out future installments. Marvel has pulled in over $10 billion worldwide from its Cinematic Universe so far, and Universal will be desperately hoping to emulate this success. The studio certainly has a number of intriguing and popular characters at its disposal to create original and entertaining storylines for. In the Marvel Universe, one character that strung the films together was Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury, who appeared in the Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and Avengers films. The equivalent of this continuous character in the Dark Universe (see video below) is rumored to be Dr Jekyll, played by Russell Crowe.

After the ancient Egyptian adventure this year, Universal plans to follow it up with a new vision of one of the most famous monsters of all time: Frankenstein. The grotesque monster will be played by Javier Bardem, who is well-known for his brilliant roles in No Country for Old Men and Skyfall. The exceptional actor should bring in audiences, and the fact that Frankenstein is still prevalent in mainstream media will also help. Online casino players can play the Frankenslot at operators including Vegas Casino, which is a five-reel bitcoin slot game with a Monster Bonus and gruesome animations. And there are also numerous Frankenstein games online such as Doctor Frankenstein and Frankenstein Adventure.

The Mummy is currently tracking to make a modest $40 million in its opening weekend, which would put it on a par with what Stephen Sommers’ 1999 film starring Brendan Fraser opened to. But no matter how the film fares, Universal are committed to making at least two more films. As mentioned above, Bardem will star in Bride of Frankenstein,Â which is scheduled for 2019, and Johnny Depp has also been cast as the Invisible Man which doesn’t yet have a release date. In addition to these timeless characters, there are also plans to make films featuring the Wolf Man, Van Helsing, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. There is no doubt that this universe could provide a refreshing change from the comic book saturated market, and give these classic characters a 21^stÂ century facelift.

Source: Dark Universe via Facebook