It’s the studio buzzword for 2016, and no wonder. The concept of the “cinematic universe”, invented for Marvel’s interlinked superhero movies, has caused quite the Hollywood hullabaloo. As well as the slew of Star Wars films due to hit cinemas over the next few years, it’s being used to describe Warner Bros’ proposed slate of 10 new movies based on the DC Comics back catalogue (think Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and two forthcoming Justice League movies that will see all three teaming up). There are even loose plans for a Ghostbusters universe.
I’ve written before in this column about why the latter makes less sense than the ending of AI. But it definitely has a rival for shonkiest Hollywood concept of 2016 in the form of Universal’s proposed cinematic universe based on the studio’s classic golden age run of monster movies, from Frankenstein and Dracula to The Creature From the Black Lagoon.
It was revealed this week that Johnny Depp will slip on Claude Rains’s manky bandages for a new version of The Invisible Man. Universal has already announced a release date for a big-screen revival of The Mummy, starring Tom Cruise as a man who discovers that the creature of the title has been reborn in the lissom form of Algerian-French actor Sofia Boutella. And the studio reportedly hopes Angelina Jolie will agree to pull on Elsa Lanchester’s monochrome frightwig for a new version of the classic James Whale horror sequel The Bride of Frankenstein.
Early days it may be, but the Big Idea for these films seems to be (drum roll) … that they will all feature Hollywood A-listers! Variety reported last month that the various monsters will all begin cropping up in each other’s movies before eventually uniting for an Avengers-style ensemble mega-movie. But there are some very good reasons why this is the worst idea since Jonathan Harker’s trip to visit the Count in Transylvania.
Marvel’s cinematic universe works because comic book history tells us there will always be some bigger, badder threat to mankind around the corner, which will require a whole host of superheroes to take down. The Star Wars universe makes sense because George Lucas’s galaxy far, far away is instantly recognisable: any number of stories can be told within it, as acolytes of the much-missed “expanded universe” of novels and comic books will tell you.
The problem with Universal’s monster universe is that these beasties are not superheroes – it’s hard to imagine humanity turning to them for a saviour – and have nothing in common other than a certain gothic, doom-laden 19th-century carapace, which is likely to be punctured as the studio moves the timeline to the present day (as is reportedly the case with the new Mummy movie).
Does the studio imagine that the heroes of each film, hired to take down the monsters, might be brought together to battle evil? Or is Universal imagining a giant mashup in which the Invisible Man, the Mummy, Dracula and the Creature from the Black Lagoon all decide to wreak havoc as part of some nefarious macro-scheme? If they are, it is going to take some planning to pull off, because the whole thing currently sounds more like Hotel Transylvania than The Avengers.
Should Universal take the Star Wars approach, it will have a huge task on its hands. Screenwriters will be tasked with inventing a mythos so powerful that its subjects become as iconic as lightsabers, Jedi knights and Sith Lords. And this from a studio that took a decade and a half working out how to bring back Jurassic Park.
Frankly, it sounds like the kind of ham-fisted reverse-engineering which had Victor Frankenstein screaming at the abject horror of his creation. Far better to admit that these new monster movies are not really parts of a cinematic universe at all, but simply a loose series of unconnected horror staples, each starring the cream of Hollywood in a lead role. What’s wrong with that?
Let’s hope Universal wakes up from this hubristic madness and stops publicising the idea that it’s planning the gothic-horror Avengers – good grief! – before it’s too late. After all, it’s one thing to pick up on a buzzword, but quite another to get the concept really humming.
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