When it comes to franchise building, The Dark Universe stands out as an example of a property that kind of put the cart before the undead horse. The proposed series of films based on the Universal Monsters more or less fell on its face with the lackluster debut of The Mummy, but Blumhouse head honcho Jason Blum recently took to social media and announced that he would be interested in picking up the franchise and helping guide it. Blum wrote:
This obviously doesn't guarantee that anything will happen, but Jason Blum's tweet is a fantastic bit of insight into what could happen in the wake of Chris Morgan and Alex Kurtzman's departure from The Dark Universe and Universal's decision to put the potential franchise on the back burner. It's also worth noting that Blumhouse is a major partner with Universal Pictures, which means Blum already has a relationship with the studio and a clear path to taking control if the folks behind The Dark Universe decide that he's the right man for the job.
There is obviously a strong case to be made that a guy like Jason Blum could be the key to cracking something like The Dark Universe. After all, over the course of the last few years, he has carved out a nice role for himself as one of Hollywood's go-to authorities on horror. Combine that with the fact that he has strong working relationships with horror filmmakers like James Wan and M. Night Shyamalan, so it would not necessarily be too hard for him to bring fantastic talent into the fold for modern takes on these classic monsters.
Moreover, there's an equally strong case to be made that a horror master is needed to correct course and make The Dark Universe feel more like its own beast. One of the chief issues that plagued The Mummy was the sense that it felt like a run-of-the-mill, big-budget action blockbuster, rather than an old-school monster flick inspired by the films that inspired the universe as a whole. With a guy like Jason Blum in place, we could see smaller-scale films debut that accurately capture the essences of monsters and characters like Dracula, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, The Wolfman and Van Helsing.
Besides, Jason Blum has already shown that Blumhouse can work well in the realm of established characters. Blumhouse has seen massive success with franchises like The Purge and Insidious, and there's a lot of buzz currently circling movies like Halloween and Glass. If the same can be done for The Dark Universe, then we could have a fascinating new cinematic universe on our hands.
We here at CinemaBlend will bring you more information related to the future of The Dark Universe, as well as Jason Blum's possible role in that future, as further details are made available to us. Until then, make sure to head over to our movie premiere guide to read up on all of the films that are headed to the big screen in 2018!
