Future is grim for Black Lagoon remake
Like many of you out there, I’m a Creature from the Black Lagoon junkie. Universal’s long-mooted remake fascinates me. Here’s a picture that has been in development for so long, you can trace its production history back to the ’80s. The latest director to walk away from the film is The Crazies‘ Breck Eisner who cites a number of reasons we haven’t seen the Creature resurrected on the big screen.
“It suffered from the realities of development hell and a writers strikes,” he says. “I don’t think it will see the light of day for a while.” Does he think The Wolfman‘s history and box office hurt the Creature’s chances of a comeback? “Yep, oh yeah. Between that and spending a lot of money in development, it’s money against the movie. When a movie is that close to happening, it takes a long time for people to forget about spending that money and to be re-engaged in it. I’d love for somebody to make that movie. It won’t be me.”
Eisner laments his decision to depart the project because, “It would have been risky and amazing. The design of the Creature by Mark ‘Crash’ McCreery was awesome. True to the original, yet obviously updated for today’s technology. The journey on the Rita, the boat design, it was ready to go.” Another highlight of the development process: A trip to the Amazon. “Scouting Peru, Brazil, Columbia. We went into the jungle of mirrors. It was an amazing experience. I didn’t come out of it empty-handed but I didn’t come out with a movie, which is what I would have wanted.”
Carl Rinsch is the latest director to be attached. He was originally scheduled to do the Alien prequel, but that fell into the hands of Ridley Scott. So, how close is Rinsch to realizing his Creature? Consider not just what Eisner says above but also this: Rinsch recently boarded Logan’s Run, a new take on the ’70s sci-fi film. That will probably hit the screen before the Creature does.
If any of you FX guys out there want to slip me a look at Eisner’s interpretation of the Creature, you know where to find me!
Source: Ryan Turek, Managing Editor
