Creature From The Black Lagoon is an iconic 1954 horror film that follows a scientific expedition to the Amazon. There, they discover that a previous expedition was massacred by a mysterious aquatic creature. It starred Julie Adams and Richard Carlson.
The original was famed for creative and revolutionary, at the time, underwater sequences. Creature from the Black Lagoon was filmed in 3D and was originally projected by the polarized light method.
The audience wore viewers with gray polarizing filters, similar to the viewers most commonly used today. Because the brief 1950s 3D film fad was in decline when it was released, many audiences actually saw the film “flat”, in 2D.
The creature himself has firmly taken its place in the pantheon of Universal movie monsters. Known as “Gill-Man”, he may well put in an appearance in Florida at Universal’s new Epic Universe theme park in an area dedicated to the Universal monsters alongside Dracula, The Wolf Man, Frankenstein’s monster and The Mummy.
Now, a new report by DanielRPK says that a director has come aboard the long-gestating remake and he is a director with a good pedigree in both horror and aquatic adventures. James Wan (Aquaman, The Conjuring) is apparently now attached to direct.
The report says there has been something of a switch in priorities for Wan now this project is moving forward. He had planned to adapt H.P. Lovecraft’s 1928 short story The Call of Cthulhu into a feature film. He will tackle Creature From The Black Lagoon instead.
The script by Will Beall has been around in Hollywood for many years, with the project trapped in development hell for a while. Directors such as John Landis, John Carpenter, Ivan Reitman, and Guillermo del Toro had all taken a run at an adaption over the years.
Will Wan’s involvement be the spark the project needs to move forward?