After killing it last year with the excellent horror film Upgrade, Leigh Whannell has been signed on by Universal to helm an upcoming movie based on The Invisible Man. Jason Blum of Blumhouse is attached to produce the project as well. The film could be the first of many movies as part of a new franchise featuring the Universal Monsters, which includes other familiar villains like Dracula, Wolfman, and Gill-man. The move is part of Universal’s new strategy to bring in different filmmakers to shoot various movies using these classic characters, with no requirement that they will need to share a film universe.
Previously, Universal had been hoping to launch a whole new franchise featuring their classic movie monsters. The “Dark Universe” would begin with 2016’s The Mummy, which was a big-budget action film starring Tom Cruise. Unfortunately, the movie fell short at the box office, with huge losses labeling it as a bomb. Critics were none to kind either, and the movie is widely seen as a failed experiment. Any plans to produce new movies in the Dark Universe were scrapped, eventually leading us to the new game plan for the franchise.
It was previously announced that an Invisible Man reboot was in the works with Johnny Depp attached to star in the lead role. The report about Whannell’s film notes that Depp is not signed on to appear in this version. However, the actor still might show up in one of the other planned projects featuring the classic monsters. As of now, only Whannell and Blum are officially attached to the upcoming Invisible Man movie, but we’re looking to get more info on the project to come out soon now that it’s officially a go.
The original Invisible Man movie was released by Universal in 1933.
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I am extremely excited about this!