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Oh, mummy! It looks like Universal’s Dark Universe is in trouble again…

August 5th, 2017 by Marc Comments

It looks like the Universal Pictures shared monsters universe is once again in trouble after a second start.

You may recall the shared Universal Monsters Universe was started a few years ago with Dracula Untold, but after it flopped they began it again this summer with Tom Cruise’s The Mummy.

Sadly, the movie wasn’t as well received as hoped and now, despite having Bride Of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, Van Helsing, Wolf Man, Frankenstein, Dracula, Phantom of the Opera and the Hunchback of Notre Dame all waiting in the wings, it seems that once again, the monster franchise is lost at sea.

Alex Kurtzman, director of The Mummy and one of the lead creators of the Dark Universe concept, has been talking about the franchise’s future and he seems like he’s really struggling with it all…

“You know the truth is, I don’t know. I really don’t know. I haven’t really decided is the honest answer.”

Hmmmmmm.

Mere weeks after the big announcement of the franchise (here), trust us, this response does not bode well.

So there you have it, folks. Is the franchise dead and, given the subject matter, can it be resurrected? Only time will tell but it honestly doesn’t look good.

Dark Universe films will be distinguished by performances from some of the most talented and popular global superstars stepping into iconic roles, as well as electric new talents whose careers are starting to break through.  While previously announced, the stars of both imminent and future Dark Universe projects are gathered for the first time in the attached photo: The Invisible Man and Frankenstein’s Monster will be played by, respectively, blockbuster icon Johnny Depp and Academy Award® winner Javier Bardem, who appear together later this summer in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.  Those actors join superstar Tom Cruise as soldier of fortune Nick Morton and Oscar® winner Russell Crowe as Dr. Henry Jekyll, who lead the all-star cast of The Mummy, along with Sofia Boutella, the actress who embodies the title role in that film.  The print-ready version of the image is available here.

For your use, Universal has also attached a rendering of the new Dark Universe logo, while the print-ready version is available here.  Both the graphic and the motion logo were created by five-time Academy Award®-winning visual effects facility Weta Digital (The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, Avatar).

At its organizing principle, Dark Universe films are connected by a mysterious multi-national organization known as Prodigium.  Led by the enigmatic and brilliant Dr. Henry Jekyll, Prodigium’s mission is to track, study and—when necessary—destroy evil embodied in the form of monsters in our world.  Working outside the aegis of any government, and with practices concealed by millennia of secrecy, Prodigium protects the public from knowledge of the evil that exists just beyond the thin membrane of civilized society…and will go to any length to contain it.

To learn more about Dark Universe and Prodigium, visit www.DarkUniverse.com and www.WelcometoProdigium.com.

Welcome to a new world of gods and monsters.  Welcome to Dark Universe.

Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….