Slowly but surely, Universal is beginning to salvage its plans to reinvigorate several monster movie franchises. Now, that slate includes a vehicle for the monsters’ greatest enemy. Deadline confirms that Universal is still developing a Van Helsing reboot, and the studio has just secured Julius Avery as the film’s director.
Avery burst onto the American scene in 2018 with his WWII-era horror film, Overlord, which featured J.J. Abrams as a producer. The movie earned largely positive reviews and opened the door for Avery to direct other big-budget action flicks. Not long after Overlord’s debut, 20th Century Fox hired him to reboot the Flash Gordon franchise. But following last year’s Disney-Fox merger, the status of this film is unclear. Avery is also directing Samaritan, an upcoming superhero thriller starring Sylvester Stallone.
Universal previously attempted to launch a Van Helsing series in 2004 with Hugh Jackman playing the title character. In that film, writer and director Stephen Sommers re-imagined the elderly professor from Bram Stoker’s Dracula as a young monster hunter who fought not only vampires, but Frankenstein’s monster, werewolves, and Mr. Hyde as well. Unfortunately, the movie was panned by critics and underperformed at the box office.
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James Wan will produce the new Van Helsing film through his Atomic Monster banner alongside Michael Clear and executive producer Judson Scott. Universal also recruited Black Widow screenwriter Eric Pearson to pen the reboot. However, Avery is re-writing his draft, and after the success of The Invisible Man earlier this year, the studio is apparently open to an R-rated take on the source material.
The Van Helsing reboot is still without a release date.
Are you excited to hear that Van Helsing is coming back to theaters? Who would you cast to play the character? Let us know in the comment section below!
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