The Invisible Man Has Been Found At Blumhouse

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Two years after Tom Cruise bored the world with The Mummy, Universal is giving their “Dark Universe” another go. Instead of creating a string of interconnected horror films, though, the movie studio is taking a more tempered approach. The first movie in the “third times a charm” rebooted universe with be The Invisible Man, directed Leigh Whannell and not starring Johnny Depp.

We say not starring because at one point Depp was attached to star. When Universal was planning their Dark Universe, they had lined up several A-list stars to play their monsters. Depp was going to be the Invisible Man, Russell Crowe was Jekyll, and Javier Bardem was Frankenstein’s monster.

All that has been scrapped. The Mummy was a massive financial failure, and Universal is going back to the low-budget drawing board. Jason Blum and Blumhouse are in charge now, and Whannell is the first director to get to play in the new house. He previously wrote Saw, Insidious, and Dead Silence, before making his directorial debut with Insidious: Chapter 3.

Whannell has the skills to craft a gothic dark horror film, but will he remember to the one thing the The Mummy forgot? That at their heart, all these “monsters” are lonely, misunderstood souls looking for acceptance.