According to Jason Blum, the upcomingThe Invisible Manreboot will have a low budget and that his studio is up for using scripts originally written for the Dark Universe. The failed “Dark Universe” was the name Universal gave to their cinematic universe centering around reboots of classic horror monsters like Frankenstein, The Wolf Man and the aforementioned Invisible Man. The studio kicked it off with 2017’s reboot ofThe Mummystarring Tom Cruise, but sadly the film bombed both critically and financially. This immediately put plans on hold for the Dark Universe, and all hope seemed lost for its interesting future. But Blumhouse head Jason Blum recent came to the rescue.
His studio has taken over the reigns for thehorror monster reboots, withThe Invisible Manbeing first in line. Blum recently spoke to Collider about the reboot while promotingHappy Death Day 2U, and revealed that there’s some very promising strategies that he hopes will make the reboot - and possible future ones - more successful than their predecessors. He also recently hiredUpgradedirector Leigh Whannell to helmThe Invisible Manreboot because of his exciting pitch.
“It was like theBlumhouse version of The Invisible Man, it’s a lower-budget movie. It’s not dependent on special effects, CGI, stunts. It’s super character-driven, it’s really compelling, it’s [thrilling], it’s edgy, it feels new. Those were all things that felt like they fit with what our company does. And it happened to be anInvisible Manstory, so it checked both boxes. And we responded to it because I think Leigh is just an A+ director.”
According to Blum,The Invisible Manbudget should be no more than $10 million. So clearly Blum intends to stray far away fromUniversal’s big-budget, CGI-heavy stylethat we saw all too much of inThe Mummy. What’s exciting about this changeup is that Blum has assigned Whannell to not only direct, but also tackle the reboot’s script. Whannell probably will be working from the beginning rather than recycling any of the screenplay written byNow You See Mescribe Ed Solomon, who wrote the originalInvisible Manreboot script intended for TheDark Universestarring Johnny Depp.
Blumhouse’s formula forThe Invisible Manis right in their wheelhouse. The studio broke out into micro-budget horror back in 2009 withParanormal Activity, and have since made huge waves over the years with recent hits likeHappy Death Day,Get OutandHalloween. They have a firm backing for what makes a unique, grounded horror film and will hopefully help keep the future monster reboots from going too far off the deep end.
Despite Blum being at the helm of the reboot, it is a shame that Johnny Depp will more than likely not be asked to return. Seeing that the film is going to be quite low budget, the studio will surely be looking for smaller-scale stars instead of major headliners like Tom Cruise or Johnny Depp. But still, Blumhouse looks to be moving in the right direction. It shouldn’t be too long before we learn more about how the studio plans to move forward with the reboots, so stay tuned for more updates. This news comes from: Collider.
