Universal Monsters getting rebooted

[palitoy]

At least they're opening it in October and not February like the Wolfman.

[madmarva]

If the movie does OK, the advantage to working it into the reboot is not having to do a Dracula origin when they get to him or do a rally movie. I'd argue the characters are well known enough not to worry about origins anyway, but this gives them an easy out.

I also hope they avoid adapting Stoker's novel. I love the novel, but I've seen so many takes ( faithful or not) on the basic plot that I want to see something new.

[hedrap]

^It's because of the producer, Mike DeLuca. He ran New Line and made Blade, Seven and LOTR. He won Oscar for Social Network and is producing 50 Shades of Grey, so the dude is a beast right now. But he was in a lull when he started on Dracula and Universal wasn't going to produce it until Legendary moved to NBCU and he got them to pick up the financing with Relatuvity. So while NBCU has little current investment, it's more of a make good and a need to get some kind of ROI for seven years of development funds.

[Earth 2 Chris]

^They must be getting good word of mouth on this, to shift the reboot over to this film right before hit hits. It's a bit risky. If it tanks, it could derail the whole idea.

Chris

[hedrap]

Untold has been long in development. This was an old deal that Uni had to see through for some kind of return and to get the rights free and clear for the Monster Rally...which I wish had other people involved. The Lost guys are all sizzle.

[palitoy]

My daughter is begging me to go see that with her.

[madmarva]

Originally the new Dracula flick wasn't planned as part of the revival/reboot of the Universal Monsters brand, but now it is.

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansit...news/?a=108547

Hopefully, it'll be good.

[MIB41]

Even if this is intended to be kind of a pre-quel or back story, I think trying to directly link the historical Prince Vlad with Universal's Count Dracula is an unnecessary misstep. I personally feel it actually dilutes Universal's unique take on Count Dracula. Universal's Count is very loosely based on Bram Stokers book and is even further removed from Prince Vlad then even the original novel was. Dracula Untold looks more like a remake of Coppola's 1992 Dracula than an update of Universal. Might still end up being a good Dracula movie. Just not a good Universal Monsters Dracula movie.

Exactly. I think what really kills the modern day vampires, is this need to humanize them in such a way that somehow explains their behavior. I hate that because it completely removes the mystic from the villain thus leaving little impact for the viewer. Its like making a movie about Jaws today and playing it so that you feel sorry when the Great White blows up. Let the monsters shine.

[Werewolf]

Even if this is intended to be kind of a pre-quel or back story, I think trying to directly link the historical Prince Vlad with Universal's Count Dracula is an unnecessary misstep. I personally feel it actually dilutes Universal's unique take on Count Dracula. Universal's Count is very loosely based on Bram Stokers book and is even further removed from Prince Vlad then even the original novel was. Dracula Untold looks more like a remake of Coppola's 1992 Dracula than an update of Universal. Might still end up being a good Dracula movie. Just not a good Universal Monsters Dracula movie.

[MIB41]

If these trailers for "Dracula Untold" is their first offering, I'm not hopeful for the rest.

[PNGwynne]

Using the Mummy is tricky IMO: Imhotep is much more imposing, almost a rival for Dracula; Kharis is more of a henchman.

[torgospizza]

I'd like to see what they come up with. Hopefully, it will give new life to the old films and make kids more aware of them. Keeping them in the same shared universe is a good move, too.

[Werewolf]

Bela Lugosi was a better actor than many give him credit for. His best work, outside of Dracula, is often over shadowed if not buried by all the B movies he did late in his career when he was in declining health. Just check out Black Cat (1934) (which he was the hero and Karloff the villain), Murders in the Rue Morgue, White Zombie and the Raven.

[enyawd72]

One of the key ingredients in Universal's horror formula was the distinctly European quality the films had. That's one of the things I love about the Wolfman remake. Three of the leads are British, and being filmed on an actual English estate gave it that same feeling to me. Even Danny Elfman's score has a great old-world gypsy sound to it.

[Earth 2 Chris]

Yeah, John Carradine in "Billy the Kid Meets Dracula" was more convincing than the effete rock star version in Van Helsing. Ugh.

Lugosi was paid to appear in "Dracula's Daughter", but that movie went through several rewrites and starts and finishes along the way. It was VERY loosely based on Stoker's short story, "Dracula's Guest" which was essentially an excised chapter of Stoker's novel. Since we only see Dracula's dead body as his daughter burns it in the beginning of the film, I kind of understand why he wasn't in it. But at least he did get paid.

Of course, Lugosi made an unofficial sequel, "Return of the Vampire" for Columbia. It's as close to a Dracula sequel as you'll get, and apparently Universal thought so, since they sued Columbia over it.

It is a head scratcher as to why they didn't make a direct sequel to Dracula. It may have been a combination of Lugosi's somewhat difficult nature, the language barrier, and the changing mores in Hollywood. Lugosi and Karloff's "The Black Cat" and "The Raven" both pushed the censors to their limits, which is why there are several years in the late 30s with no Universal Horrors. This may have stalled any progress on getting Dracula up and biting again. By the time they came back with "Son of Frankenstein", maybe they figured that ship had sailed.

Chris