Universal hires writers for ‘Van Helsing’ reboot
Universal is still planning a blockbuster reboot of their classic monster franchise and Van Helsing is set to be part of that plan. Once rumored to be directed by Hellboy‘s Guillermo del Toro or having Tom Cruise attached, the Van Helsing reboot has at least been given writers.
Variety reports screenwriters Jon Spaihts (Passengers, Prometheus) and Eric Heisserer (The Thing prequel) have signed on to pen Van Helsing. Spaihts recently wrote Universal’s reboot of The Mummy, so they must’ve been pleased enough with his work to collaborate with him again.
Van Helsing‘s producer, Alex Kurtzman, teased a few years ago we’ll see a more grounded take on the character:
Well, I don’t want to give away too much, because we are actually at the very beginning of talking about what to do with it. But I do feel like the Van Helsing that Anthony Hopkins plays in [Bram Stoker’s] Dracula is sort of the parody version of it, and the Van Helsing that Hugh Jackman played was obviously in a different place as well. I think that these kinds of movies have evolved a lot since then. You know, The Dark Knight was a major, major corner-turning moment in the way that genre and superhero stories could be told. Really grounded in reality. Really grounded in really cool things. That’s what I’d like to do without sacrificing the fantasy element. We aspired to do that as well on Trek, you know, keep it “real.” That’s such a different franchise than Batman, but that’s really what we wanted to do. And we’d love to do that with Van Helsing.
Van Helsing was a bad movie as director Stephen Sommers brought some fun to the original Mummy reboot, but he failed miserably with Dracula, the Wolf Man, and Van Helsing.
No dates yet, but expect a 2018 or 2019 drop date if things move ahead well.
