Is this the Golden State Warriors of horror movies?
The return of the Universal Monsters is a star-studded affair that will include Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe in The Mummy (in theaters June 9, 2017), and Johnny Depp in The Invisible Man, with the studio targeting Angelina Jolie for Bride of Frankenstein, Scarlett Johansson in The Creature From the Black Lagoon, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson for The Wolfman.
Sources tell Variety that Javier Bardem, pictured, is now in talks to star as FRANKENSTEIN in Universal’s cinematic universe with rebooted versions of classic monster movies. It’s currently unknown which movie Bardem would first appear in, as The Mummy, the first film in the monster universe, is about to wrap shooting.
Universal had no comment. The studio is also developing a Bride of Frankenstein pic, but their sources indicate that Bardem’s Frankenstein would likely appear in another monster movie before his own project.
The studio tapped Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan last summer to help develop the monster universe for Universal.
Ironically, Bardem had been approached about playing the Dr. Jekyll role in The Mummy, but passed on the part, which opened the door for Crowe to step into the role.
It’s become impossible to keep up with these films and who’s who in them, which is sort of exciting. Universal is somehow convincing all of the A-list actors and actresses to partake in what will essentially be the biggest horror franchise that’s ever been.
With that said, Universal did make Dracula Untold, which hopefully they realized was a near apocalyptic mistake.
