Movies
‘Van Helsing’ Screenwriter Talks the Tone of the New Film
The Universal Monsters Cinematic Universe (UMCU) is one of the most exciting upcoming ventures I’ve heard of in a while. Say whatever you want but the chance to see the classic monsters, such as Dracula, The Mummy and the like, is incredibly exciting for me. These are the monsters that many of us cut our teeth on, the ones that inspired countless horror films that we know and love. It’s also a chance to introduce these characters to a new generation, one that may not have taken the time to go back and visit the foundation upon which our genre is built. Even if the movies aren’t good, we can still take solace knowing that it spurred interest in the originals. However, let’s keep a positive mindset, shall we?
Screenwriter Jon Spaihts (Prometheus, Doctor Strange) recently spoke with Collider about the upcoming reboot of Van Helsing, which he says doesn’t owe anything to the 2004 pile of garbage. Instead, they are taking more inspiration from Bram Stoker’s novel while still bringing the concept into modern times.
It’s a new creation, so it doesn’t owe much of a debt to prior films, but it is still a very romantic departure from the character as incepted in Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula, where it was a Dutch doctor who figures out a very surprising answer to an odd medical question. This is a monster hunter with encyclopedic knowledge, but it’s set in the present day and it’s just filled with good stuff I’m not allowed to talk about. But I’m very excited about this new incarnation of Van Helsing, and I hope that as the Universal Monsters Cinematic Universe begins to take flight, we’ll see him cropping up in other stories, as well.
That last line is very exciting, as it reinforces the idea that there will be crossovers between the films in the UMCU. Maybe we’ll eventually get an Avengers style film where multiple monsters come together while multiple monster hunters also join forces? One can only hope!
The studio is launching its monsters universe, a series of interconnected monster films based on its vault of classic movies, with The Mummy, starring Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe. Directed by Alex Kurtzman, it is set to hit theaters June 9, 2017. Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, The Invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein are among the classic creatures that will be included in the new universe, overseen by Kurtzman (Star Trek) and Chris Morgan (Fast & Furious).
Two things that have proven to be pretty dependable at the box office in recent years are horror movies and Christopher Nolan movies. With Nolan’s The Odyssey absolutely dominating the box office this past weekend, many fans of Nolan’s work have been left hungry for a Nolan-directed horror movie. After all, The Odyssey does whet the appetite for Nolan nightmare fuel.
Christopher Nolan has brushed up against the horror genre in the past with 2002 thriller Insomnia, but does he have any interest in someday making a full-on horror movie?
Nolan tells the Empire Podcast in a new chat, “I’ve always been interested in doing a horror film.”
“But horror is most successful when the conceptual framework of whatever the story is is just so undeniable. I think there are very few really great horror movies,” Nolan continues.
So why hasn’t Christopher Nolan directed a horror movie yet?
He explains to Empire, “I’ve never clicked with a particular idea or concept that worked for me. I love the genre. Of all genres, it’s the most visceral. Where the direct response to the audience is the most important. That is to say, you’re trying to make people literally feel something in their bones about what’s going on on-screen.”
Nolan calls horror “a genre in which experimentation is demanded.” He explains, “I go to see a lot of horror films with my kids these days, and you’ll see things in the first half an hour, 45 minutes of any horror film that you’d never see in another genre. Risks that are taken. Dangerous approaches to things. Admittedly, a lot of movies can’t sustain that to the end. But in the horror genre, that kind of innovation is not just respected – it’s really demanded.”
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is now playing in theaters.
Cillian Murphy as Scarecrow in Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Dark Knight’ (2008)
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