R.I.P. Dark Universe

To absolutely no one's surprise, Universal Studio's "Dark Universe" Cinematic Universe is dead.

Back in July I reviewed The Mummy, which was the first film in Universal's desperate attempt to jump start their own little shared movie world, ala the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

I predicted it wouldn't work, as Universal was putting the cart before the horse, trying to START with a fleshed-out universe instead of slowly building one the way Marvel did. I also said it was a mistake to take their Classic Monsters and try to turn them into superheroes. And when Universal pinned The Mummy's failure on actor Tom Cruise instead of taking the blame themselves, I said the Dark Universe was dead on arrival.

Sadly, it looks like I was right on all counts.

The next entry in the Dark Universe was supposed to be the Bride Of Frankenstein. Why they'd make a movie about the Bride before introducing the Frankenstein monster first, I have no idea, but there you go. Anyway, the film was to be directed by Bill Condon, who recently helmed the incredibly successful live action Beauty And The Beast. But in an interview a couple weeks ago, Condon said he was looking forward to filming Bride Of Frankenstein, but claimed it wouldn't be connected to the Dark Universe in any way. Said Condon:

"I will tell you this— what I’m doing is 100% making a really good monster movie. It has nothing to do with anything else. Nothing. Zero."

Wha...? So much for that shared universe, I guess!

Then a few days later, Universal announced that Bride Of Frankenstein has been quietly removed from their schedule, in order to "rework the script." Universal made an official statement, saying:

“None of us want to move too quickly to meet a release date when we know this special movie needs more time to come together. Bill is a director whose enormous talent has been proven time and again, and we all look forward to continuing to work on this film together.”

All that's MovieSpeak® for, "We don't wanna risk throwing any more money at this cinematic turd, so we're yanking it from the schedule to try and save what little face we have left." 

I will be greatly surprised if the Bride Of Frankenstein remake ever sees the light of day at all. I tried to tell Universal they were going about it all backwards, but no one ever listens to me.

R.I.P. Dark Universe

2017 -2017