We're just going to take a minute
and we're all going to come up with a new plan.
You don't know what you're doing.
Really?
I know exactly what I'm doing.
[GROWLING]
In the mid 2010s, Universal dusted off
the proverbial coffin of their most beloved franchise,
the Universal monsters.
The powers that be decided to resurrect them
with an all-star cast of actors and directors
tasked with the mission of creating a cinematic universe
to compete with Marvel.
And yet, for everyone involved, this monstrous resurrection
only had disastrous results.
These three men were propelled to superstardom
by the Universal monster movies.
And that's exactly the formula that Universal
was hoping to mimic with their new Dark Universe--
attach major stars to these iconic characters
and let the money roll in.
[CLICK]
That's your plan?
In May of 2017, Universal made a splashy announcement,
a press release coupled with a publicity
shot of Johnny Depp, Javier Bardem, Tom Cruise, Russell
Crowe, and Sofia Boutella, announcing
the arrival of the next big cinematic event,
The Dark Universe.
The announcement also heralded the involvement
of a murderer's row of behind-the-camera talent.
Chris Morgan, the writer and producer
behind The Fast and The Furious franchise.
Alex Kurtzman, head honcho of Star Trek and Transformers.
And Tom Cruise collaborators, Christopher Macquarrie
and David Koepp, among others, were all named.
After flirting with doing something
with the monsters for a long time,
Universal was finally putting their money on the table.
The only holdup was that this wasn't
the first time they tried to do this with the classic monsters.
Going all the way back to the beginning, what eventually
became the Universal monsters initially
were just desperate adaptations of beloved horror novels.
Todd Browning's Dracula, released in 1931,
was the first, and often considered
the best of these films.
I am Dracula.
But in rapid succession, James Whale
made Frankenstein, The Invisible Man,
and Bride of Frankenstein, which opened the gateway for The Wolf
Man and a bevy of sequels.
And these sequels formed the first interconnected
cinematic universe on film.
It's alive!
Each of the central characters of the Universal horror films
got their own franchises.
And as time went on, they got more self-involved, myopic,
and needlessly complex.
The final installments in the Universal monsters
collective franchise were dubbed monster rally films, largely
because they were light on plot and heavy
on cameos of the beloved characters that went bump
in the night.
But the more Universal return to the well,
the less money the films made.
We're going to take a quick break
from talking about Dark Universe to talk about another universe
that you should check out, and that's Bloodline--
Heroes of Lithas, one of my current favorite fantasy
RPG games.
First off, Bloodline is stunning.
Check out these 3D realistic graphics.
It's also very customizable, which
is something I value in RPGs.
You can customize your champions by marrying
different bloodlines until you find
a unique combination of abilities that
fits your own gameplay style.
The controls are easy to use, and it's
free to play for both Android and iOS.
The characters are also totally epic.
And if you use my link, you can get the Clan of Karg for free.
These guys can transform into real dragons.
You can also use my link to get a half-dragonborn half-demigod
hybrid air for free, and these are extremely rare.
So use my link in the description
or scan the QR code showing on screen,
and download and try out Bloodline for free.
My link also includes a $20 exclusive starter pack
with 20 intimacy packs, 100,000 gold, and 100 diamonds.
New legends will be born.
And now, back to the video.
There were various attempts at reclaiming
the glory of Universal throughout the years.
From Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula--
Welcome to my home.
--to that one Frankenstein movie that starred Robert De Niro.
However, they never fully attempted
to mimic the interconnectedness of the original Universal
monster films.
In 2014, Universal made their first play
to recreate the interconnected filmic world.
Dracula Untold was a mashup of classic Dracula iconography
and Batman Begins.
Originally intended as just a Dracula project that
would update the character for contemporary audiences,
the film was altered just two weeks before it was released.
Reshoots retroactively pulled the character
into a connective film universe with the other horror stalwart
icons of dread that Universal was preparing to launch.
I mean it.
Glad.
However, despite a new ending scene
that showed Dracula in modern day and set up a new conflict,
audiences did not respond to the film.
That, coupled with a low box office
return due in part to the fact that the film's release date
was shifted three different times,
caused Universal to step back and reevaluate.
The failure of Dracula Untold sparked the need
to publicly signal that Universal
was going to double down on the idea of a modern horror
universe.
That's when they brought in the previously mentioned list
of megastars, writers, and directors.
Javier Bardem was set to star in a reboot of Bride
of Frankenstein opposite Angelina Jolie as The Bride.
Johnny Depp would be The Invisible Man.
Russell Crowe would appear as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,
and act as a sort of Nick Fury for the film universe.
What do you think you're doing?
Evacuate your men.
We'll take it from here.
And Tom Cruise would star as an adventurer and Indiana
Jones-esque character for The Mummy.
You'd think you'd want Frankenstein or Dracula,
the two most iconic characters Universal had,
to be the big debut.
But with Dracula Untold being a misfire,
Universal opted for The Mummy, largely due to the fact
that the Brendan Fraser franchise had a largely
positive cultural opinion.
The Mummy reboot had been kicking around for close
to a decade.
The version that was released follows Nick Morton, a US Army
sergeant, who makes money on the side stealing priceless items
from archeological dig sites and selling them
on the black market.
Hey, hey.
We are not looters.
We are liberators of precious antiquities.
Right.
He, along with his comedic sidekick, Chris Vail--
played by Jake Johnson--
are quickly swept up in a would-be modern tale
of adventure, horror, and intrigue.
While this film isn't directly based
on any one specific version of The Mummy-- arguably,
to its detriment-- the film attempts
to fuse the best of the Stephen Sommers Mummy
with the best of the MCU.
The film chronicles Morton's unwitting revival
of the purportedly evil entombed entity and his embodiment
of an ages old curse put upon him by the titular villain.
Morton, a character with compromised morals
to begin with, is tempted by The Mummy
to be a vessel for her abilities and desires.
You have been selected as the vessel for the ultimate evil.
And we are the only ones who can rectify that.
The end product wants to be a modern day adventure
classic, but just lands somewhere
in an uncanny valley between genuinely boring and just
straight up copying elements from other films
that were more successful.
The film also works really hard to signal to the audience
that it's setting up the building blocks of a universe
to come.
Russell Crowe's Dr. Jekyll heads an organization,
dubbed Prodigium.
From the Latin, monstrum vel prodigium.
It acts as a spooky version of Shield,
but the film takes all this so seriously.
It just sucks the fun out of it.
None of the world building ideas ever develop
into anything substantial, leaving
much of the film feeling like the cold vestiges of boardroom
business decisions.
The weirdest aspect of the movie is
how it's so blatantly attempting to copy the MCU's trademark
humor, and failing miserably.
Tom Cruise is the leading man.
He's arguably the last true movie star.
He's also not funny.
Sure, Les Grossman was great, but Tom Cruise is just not
funny in this movie.
What are you thinking?
[BULLET RICOCHET]
I'm thinking we're probably going to die here.
And tragically, audiences agree.
On its release, the film pulled in $32 million,
for a full theatrical haul of $410 million worldwide.
This was a disappointment to Universal,
but it was truly the critical reaction to The Mummy
that sank The Dark Universe.
The film garnered a 15% on Rotten Tomatoes,
with audiences collectively seeming to say,
we see what you're doing, and we don't like it.
It was even nominated for the worst picture for the Razzies
that year alongside worst director and dual worst actor
nominees for Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe.
I'm offering you a partnership.
[SNIFFS] You, evil incarnate.
Me, your good friend Eddie.
So what happened?
Why did the film end up being such a swing and a miss?
Well, one major contributing factor
was revealed in a June 2017 Variety article.
Tom Cruise ostensibly took over the picture.
According to insider sources who spoke with the writers,
Cruise joined the production just after Kurtzman
was brought on board, but he was contractually guaranteed
control of the picture.
He then set about micro-managing every aspect of the production.
He brought two of his longtime collaborators
in to rewrite the script.
And during the shooting of the film,
would consistently lobby for less screen
time for Sofia Boutella's Mummy and more screen
time for his character.
He also was the driving force behind the fact
that Nick Morton was cursed.
And ostensibly, took over the role of The Mummy
at the end of the film.
Cruise was brought in by Universal
to give the project a cultural prestige value.
However, they made a deal with him
that granted him control to the degree that probably
wasn't wise in hindsight.
Multiple sources say that Cruise was
seen telling Kurtzman what types of lenses to use on the camera
and how to direct scenes, to say nothing to the fact
that he brought in his longtime editor
to cut the finished product.
Supervising art director for the project, Frank Walsh,
said, "This is very much a film of two halves--
before Tom and after Tom."
You don't have to be a psychologist
to read between the lines there.
Stop.
A sacrifice--
Just stop.
--for the greater good!
I'm not interested in that at all.
Since then, Kurtzman has since moved on,
and is very successfully running Paramount's entire Star Trek
organization.
However, when asked about The Mummy recently, he just said,
"The Mummy wasn't what I wanted it to be."
Needless to say, its disastrous critical reception,
tepid box office numbers, and generally
below average interest from potential fans
sealed the fate of The Dark Universe.
There were brief rumors about Channing Tatum taking
the role of Van Helsing and The Rock being courted
to play The Wolf Man, but the reaction to The Mummy
sealed the deal.
There weren't going to be any more
films in The Dark Universe.
It was dead.
No Bride of Frankenstein, no Invisible Man,
no more Prodigium.
It was just over.
Wow!
That was intense!
And that was that.
Until Universal partnered with Blumhouse
and made a fantastic standalone Invisible Man
movie a few years later that has no connection
to any shared universe.
But where there's a will, there's a way.
But that's far from the last time we'll see the monsters.
Currently on the horizon, there's
a Wolf Man film purportedly starring
Ryan Gosling, proving that the Universal monsters do
one thing better than anyone else in the history of film,
come back from the dead.
Well, that's all we have for this episode.
What do you think?
Should we try again at The Dark Universe?
Let us know in the comments below.
And as always, please comment, and subscribe to Nerdstalgic
for more videos just like this.
[MUSIC PLAYING]