The 1954 classic Universal film 'Creature from the Black Lagoon' that has as of 2022, been the only title of the classic Universal Monsters line of films that has yet to see a modern iteration. While it's nice that a classic film has yet to be tampered with or tainted by modern Hollywood, it's always interesting to imagine what a modern take on the film could be if given to the right people.
Throughout the 1980s and even up until recently, many attempts have been made at bringing the Gill Man to the big screen once again and for today's entry, we'll go into as many as I can dig up.
Beginning in 1982, John Landis of 'An American Werewolf in London' fame got together with the film's original director Jack Arnold who then contacted acclaimed writer Nigel Kneale to pen the screenplay. This first draft would feature two creatures, one good and one evil and was described to be inspired by two characters from the novel 'Of Mice and Men'? Okay...They would also leave the titular lagoon and both end up fighting the US Navy.
Ultimately, not much else is known beyond this as once it was decided by Landis and crew to shoot the movie in 3D, a gimmick that had recently come back in style Universal Pictures decided that it was a better use of their time and money to invest in 'JAWS 3D' which was financially successful but one can only wonder if choosing the former would've turned out?
Universal's next attempt is the most known, starting in 1992 after the release of his latest film 'Memoirs of an Invisible Man' Horror Maestro John Carpenter was soon attached to direct with Bill Phillips providing the screenplay. This script is available to read if you can track it down and would stay closer to the source material than Landis' 1982 version, while having a similar vibe to Carpenter's remake of 'The Thing' by having a much darker, violent, and mature vibe.
The story would revolve around a man named Pete Hazard, a vengeful drunkard who was previously attacked by the Gill Man and takes over a ship of scientists and other various crew to hunt down the creature, Ahab style. This version does expand on the original's themes of man tampering with nature and even with the Saturday Morning Cartoon sounding Pete Hazard being very over the top with his villainous nature, it was overall a pretty solid screenplay.
When I compared it to 'The Thing' however, I wasn't kidding that 'Creature' carries a similar vibe. This Gill Man's got claws in this script and he's not afraid to use them whenever possible. Heads and limbs are brutally torn off, faced clawed, spines crushed in, and the villain is given a particularly nasty death scene. It very likely was going to turn off many fans of the classic film had it been made, but modern audiences would've likely eaten it up especially with Academy Award winner Rick Baker at the helm doing the makeup. Overall, this version was a fun read though how much of it was reworked afterwords is unknown.
Whether the box office failure of 'Invisible Man' in 1992 or Carpenter's interest changing to Universal's 'Village of the Damned' remake was to blame, the Gill Man would sadly return to the lagoon once again and this version was scrapped.
The briefest update was in 1995, when Universal approached Peter Jackson to helm the remake, this time with a screenplay by Herschel Weingrod and Timothy Harris. Nothing is known about this script's take on the story as Jackson would quickly decline to work on his upcoming 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy and eventually the 'King Kong' remake for Universal. The studio then moved onto 'Ghostbusters' director Ivan Reitman with the same script, but he would also turn it down.
With the success of 1999's 'Mummy' remake, the studio would once again attempt to bring the Creature to modern audiences, this time with producer Gary Ross, who would co-write a new script with his father and original writer of the '54 film Arthur Ross however soon after, his father would sadly pass. The film was announced in 2001 but nothing was heard from the production until an interview with Ross in 2008, who said the film while not greenlit officially was moving along well and would have a more serious tone. This would be the last time any news or announcement of any kind for this version would surface.
Another famous attempt would come in the when Guillermo Del Toro would express interest in a remake. This story would have been seen from the viewpoint of the Creature itself and how the humans are seen as the real threat of the story. There was even a design made which you can see above but sadly like many of Del Toro's projects, there would be many roadblocks that prevented him from helming the picture. Universal Pictures was quite simply not keen on the ideas he presented and along with various other creative differences, the project never materialized. Del Toro however would seemingly have the last laugh, as he took his ideas and created the massively successful 2017 film 'The Shape of Water' which would win him a Best Picture Oscar. Silver Lining if I do say so myself.
James Gunn in a recent interview stated that he also approached Universal around the same time he worked on the 'Dawn of the Dead' remake for them, but according to the director they turned him down saying on an Instagram Q&A session they 'Didn't want him to do it'.
Breck Eisner was then attached, taking Ross's original script and making changes to the story so as to give it a stronger environmental message, making the crew that travels to the Amazon part of a pharmaceutical company that dumps chemicals, which either lead to the creation of the monster or simply drew his ire. This version was cancelled due to the 2008 Writer's Strike. Another attempt by Carl Erik Rinsch would also be cancelled due to the strike. In 2012, a script was written by Dave Kajganich simply titled 'The Black Lagoon', which was due to release in 2014 but yet again nothing ever came of it.
Universal would then dabble with the idea of rebooting their classic Monster characters and bring them into the modern world. This project would eventually be known as the 'Dark Universe', an obvious take on the ever growing trend of shared cinematic universes which was popularized by Marvel. As we know by now, the 'Dark Universe' would become an infamous flop and an embarrassment for Universal Pictures. With 2014's 'Dracula: Untold' and 2017's 'The Mummy' both financially and critically failing, the remaining slate of films was cancelled, including yet another 'Creature' remake. It was to be helmed by Alex Kurtzman, who also did 'The Mummy' with a script by Jeff Pinkner & Will Beall. Not much is known beyond this as the 'Dark Universe' came to a screeching halt. Rumors thrown around at the time said the film might have starred Scarlett Johanssen & Chris Evans though not much else.
With the 2020 success of 'The Invisible Man' as a standalone film, a remake of 'The Wolf Man' was soon greenlit with Ryan Gosling set to star so only time will tell if we'll eventually get to see a 'Creature from the Black Lagoon' comeback in the near future. Meanwhile, I highly recommend Guillermo Del Toro's 'The Shape of Water' as an excellent substitute.
All information was taken from both the Lost Media Wiki (https://lostmediawiki.com) and the Universal Monsters Universe Fan page (https://universalmonstersuniverse.com).
