Sci-Fi Film and Television Developments

Creature from the Black Lagoon

12/15/09 - Ridley Scott's protégée Carl Erik Rinsch might create a new Creature From the Black Lagoon remake. Variety reports that Universal is courting Rinsch to make a new version of its 1954 classic about an amphibious, humanoid and sort of tragic monster who terrorizes a scientific expedition on the Amazon. Rinsch has been directing cutting-edge commercials for Ridley and Tony Scott's RSA company for years. The original, filmed in 3-D with a lot of artistic grace by the late, great Jack Arnold, spawned two sequels back in the 1950s.

12/5/08 – SCI FI Wire reported that Gary Ross, who wrote and will produce a new version of The Creature From the Black Lagoon, said his script found some scientific justifications to explain the creature's origins. Ross's father, Arthur A. Ross, co-wrote the original 1954 film.  "We found some scientific underpinnings for it, which my dad actually felt in the original," Ross said. "In fact, he had based it on a lungfish that was found around that time. So a lot of that was his input and kind of the conflict between science and nature."  With such research, Ross also said that the tone will be straight, not campy. "I don't think we're going to wink at the audience and make it silly in any sort of way," he said. "I think we're going to take it seriously. We're going to treat it with a certain amount of dignity. We're not approaching this in a retro, campy kind of way. It's set in present day. There are reasonable scientific underpinnings for it. It should really be a really interesting journey into the jungle, both for the characters and for the audience. It's not a reference to what the original is. It's not referential that way. We take it sort of seriously."  Though Ross said his script avoided ironic references to '50s monster movies, he did take some inspiration from his father's work. "It'll draw from the original," he said. "My dad's favorite was The Creature Walks Among Us, the last one which he also wrote. My dad actually just died two weeks ago, so it's a very personal film. I think we'll be faithful."  Ross could not discuss which directors he has approached so far, and he added that it will be the filmmaker's call whether to make a computer-generated creature or have a guy in a suit. "Those are decisions that are always going to be made during prep," he said. "A lot of the decisions of the hybrid of CG versus practical ways of shooting it will obviously be made by the director down the line."  Creature From the Black Lagoon does not yet have a green light, but Ross is confident it will come together next year.

05/05/08 - Director Breck Eisner is preparing an update to the 1954 SF movie Creature From the Black Lagoon and has found a pristine location in the Amazon to film it.  "I want it to be authentic; I want it to be a sea of green rather than CG," said Eisner.  "It is certainly easy to update the story. It was shot in modern times at the time it was originally made, and this will be shot today in the Amazon. We are updating the tone of the original."   Eisner said that a telephone pole and wire is clearly visible in some shots in the first Creature film, which was shot mostly on the Universal Studios back lot. "Of course, in those days nobody thought you'd be able to stop the film and freeze the frame," the director said with a laugh. "We had a crew in the Amazon in Peru. ... We found a place called the Forest of Mirrors, because you can see [from] overhead [that] there are so many lagoons on a thousand-mile green-carpet river, and we found the lagoon we're going to shoot in." He said the river water level drops 50 feet in the winter months.

12/31/06 - Breck Eisner will director Universal's remake of the classic SF movie Creature From the Black Lagoon. Gary Ross wrote the update of the 1954 monster classic.  The original movie introduced the Gill Man, who terrorized archaeologists exploring the Amazon.

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