Dark Universe

There was a brief period of time when Universal Pictures planned to create a monster-verse of their own (titled Dark Universe), with the 2017 relaunch of The Mummy being the first title to kick off the concept. Obviously, all these years later, there's been no promising momentum with the "Dark Universe," and the idea has […]

When it comes to poking fun at failed cinematic universes, no one fell so hard and from so high as the Dark Universe. They had a logo; they announced all of these big movies with massive stars. There was this awkward photoshoot where it was unclear whether or not all of them were even in […]

Universal Pictures tried to do their own version of a shared cinematic universe with their monster movies but the Dark Universe didn't end up panning out. That doesn't mean that Universal isn't going to make movies starring those infamous monsters though; it just means they are going in a different direction. In the case of The […]

Contrary to what the title of Leigh Shannell's upcoming film project might imply, audiences are going to be seeing a lot of The Handmaid's Tale's Elisabeth Moss, with the Emmy Award-winning actress officially on board  Universal-Blumhouse's The Invisible Man. As previously reported, Johnny Depp (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald) is no longer involved in […]

At the end of January a surprising announcement came out of Blumhouse. They were going to produce a remake of The Invisible Man. This was a surprise because, as far as everyone knew, the Dark Universe was dead. The Mummy didn't do well at the box office and everything seemed like it was dead and […]

We're sure you'll recall Universal Studios' disastrous attempt to bring new life into the Universal Monsters franchise with the pretty terrible Tom Cruise-led The Mummy. The thought behind the film was to begin a modern chapter of the monsterverse which would include Dracula, Wolfman, The Mummy, Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde, etc. you get the idea. Thankfully, […]

The last we heard about the Dark Universe, the Bride of Frankenstein was put on hold and Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan were exiting the franchise. That was at the end of last year, and everyone has been assuming that the Dark Universe is done. After The Mummy critically bombed and only did okay at […]

I'm starting to think that we live in a world where people want to either love or hate everything. Things are either awesome or horrible with no middle ground. I've seen it a lot with film and television, people talking about things in superlatives that just don't deserve it. A couple recent examples are Marvel's […]

Universal Pictures's Bride of Frankenstein reboot has been moved back into pre-production. Word is that director Bill Condon is continuing to work on the script and the studio has undated the film, which has been scheduled for February 14th, 2019. Production would've started in February 2018, but they want to hold off until they are happy […]

The Mummy did not exactly do well at the domestic box office but internationally it did well enough. Universal has made enough money to justify going ahead with the sequels. One of those is going to be Bride of Frankenstein, due out in 2019, with Beauty and the Beast director Bill Condon behind the wheel. […]

The Mummy is, for lack of a better phrase, not dead. Now that the import ban on western movies has finally come down, the lucrative Chinese Box Office is saving several movies from oblivion. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is reportedly doing very well there, but it probably won't be enough to […]

In a recent interview with IGN, Mummy (2017) director Alex Kurtzman was asked about his status on the Dark Universe franchise. The Dark Universe, for those who don't know, is the Marvel Studios-esque "shared universe" idea that Universal Pictures is trying with the classic "Universal Monsters" like Dracula, the Wolfman, the Invisible Man, and the aforementioned Mummy. This was intended […]

Floating around the Hollywood Reporter and JoBlo is a rumor that Magic Mike, 21/22 Jump Street, and Hateful Eight actor Channing Tatum is being eyed for the role of Van Helsing in the upcoming Dark Universe shared continuity of movies by Universal Studios. This is almost a bit of a surprise, given the absolute flop that the recent Mummy film turned out to […]

The Dark Universe is a thing that's going to happen regardless of what kind of movie The Mummy actually was. At this point there are too many plates up in the air, contacts signed, that it doesn't really matter if no one likes this first one. The next movie we're getting is Bride of Frankenstein […]

[rwp-review-recap id="0"] The Mummy wants to be a horror movie, an action movie, and kick off an entire universe at the time same — and accomplishes none of those things. Director: Alex Kurtzman Summary: An ancient princess is awakened from her crypt beneath the desert, bringing with her malevolence grown over millennia, and terrors that […]

The Mummy comes out this weekend and it has to go up against Wonder Woman. This is a major problem with the summer movie schedule; there is no time for any movie to make back its money unless it hits big right away. If The Mummy doesn't hit this weekend it absolutely won't the weekend […]

Universal Pictures is still pushing The Mummy with everything that they've got right now. Now that it's looking like Wonder Woman is going to be a hit the fact that this is the competition for the latest DCEU movie means it could be in trouble. That isn't stopping them from releasing yet another featurette this […]

The Dark Universe appears to be moving forward before we know whether or not it's going to work. We already know that Javier Bardem is Frankenstein's monster, Johnny Depp is the Invisible Man, Russell Crowe is making his first appearence as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in the upcoming movie The Mummy. We also know […]

With two weeks to go until The Mummy's release date, it's time for more promo. Universal Pictures must have a lot riding on this movie for the amount of promotional material we're seeing for it. This time it comes from Empire and features a high-quality look at Sofia Boutella as the mummy. She looks pretty cool, […]

Universal Pictures has kicked the marketing for The Mummy into high gear with another new featurette. This time it's the cast and crew talking about the "Dark Universe" and how the Universal Monsters have such an amazing legacy. If nothing else the people involved with this seem to have a lot of genuine respect for […]