On B-D’s visit to the set of The Thing prequel in Toronto, we had the opportunity to ask producer Marc Abraham whether the Creature From the Black Lagoon remake will be moving forward – and while he was noncommital on its prospects for ever seeing the light of day, he was at least able to offer a glimmer of hope for Black Lagoon fans.
“We’ve gone through a bunch of different incarnations of scripts, and none that me and my partner were satisfied with,” said Abraham. “Gary Ross is involved with us as a producer [along with] his wife, Allison [Thomas]. None of us have been satisfied. I think we have a really cool take on the movie now – [a] much hipper, [more] interesting version of it, and we’re looking for a new writer who’s after that. And, in fact, I just had breakfast and I was writing down my notes about it, about how I think it should go. I think we have a really cool take on it. Still set in South America, really a more ‘not-a-guy-in-a-rubber-suit’…[it’s a] much more psychological transformation, more literary transformation. I think a really interesting idea.”

Asked whether he sees the possible remake – which he described as “more of an origin story and [about] how [the transformation] happens” – as the basis for a potential franchise, however, it seems the busy producer is taking it one movie at a time: “I don’t know about that,” he told us, before quickly changing the subject.

Does his use of the word “hipper” make anyone else uneasy besides me? I can see it now: Justin Bieber in a Gill-Man suit. With sparkles. And it’s a musical.