And Now for a Game of Good News/Bad News: Universal Has Wicked, Van Helsing Movies in the Works
In Which We Make A Terrible Pun
Universal Chairman Adam Fogelsen had a chat with The Hollywood Reporter about some of Universal’s upcoming projects, and while some of what he had to say had me snoozing (the 50 Shades of Grey movie might come out in summer 2014, at which point I will care about it even less than I do now, which is barely possible), some of it caught my eye. Namely: What was that you just said about a Van Helsing reboot and a Wicked movie, Mr. Fogelsen?
Historically, Universal’s biggest franchise is their Universal monsters, and it’s one that they’ve already shown interest in reviving with their upcoming Mummy reboot. But it turns out that’s not the only monster they’re bringing back from the dead. Says Fogelsen:
We are looking at rebooting Van Helsing because I think the idea for the Van Helsing story was a great way of solving the question of, “How do you make a blockbuster out of monsters?”
My first reaction to the phrase “rebooting Van Helsing” was to rear back from my computer in horror, I’ll admit. But upon further consideration… look, doesn’t it make more sense to reboot bad movies than good ones? Hopefully Universal will learn from the mistakes they made with the Hugh Jackman version and make a movie about a badass monster hunter that isn’t completely awful. Then again, this is Hollywood, so I don’t want to take the whole “learning from one’s mistakes” thing for granted.
And Wicked? Asked why the success of Universal’s Les Misérables hasn’t led to a Wicked greenlight (ba-doom-ch), Fogelsen responded:
Wicked has been an enormous win for this company [Universal is majority owner of the Broadway musical]. The way it works, we should be in agreement together on when the right time to do this is. But I will tell you I believe that we are collectively moving toward Wicked coming to the screen sooner rather than later.
OK, that’s good. Give us enough time to wash the taste of Oz the Great and Powerful out of our mouths, though. That movie looks so shiny and substanceless and awful. But do I have to hope it does well now so Universal won’t put Wicked on the back burner? Ah well, whatever. Fingers crossed that Wicked actually happens.
Fogelsen also dropped a bit of info about the upcoming Snow White and the Huntsman sequel, namely that Kristen Stewart‘s Snow White will be the main character (which we pretty much already knew) and that he “[doesn’t] think [original director] Rupert [Sanders] is pursuing the next Snow White as a directing opportunity.” Yeeeeah, we figured. That would be somewhat awkward.
(via: The Hollywood Reporter)
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