Johnny Depp’s ‘Invisible Man’ Reboot Loses Writer

After announcing the plans for the “Dark Universe” of shared monsters movies, Universal Pictures was poised to dominate the horror world by reviving icons with big name actors attached to each project. Unfortunately, the future looks bleak for the shared universe, with the most recent blow to the concept being that Ed Solomon, who had been developing an Invisible Man remake with Johnny Depp attached, is no longer involved with the project.

“At the end of the day, I think Universal and I had a different idea of what the movie was gonna be,” Solomon shared with Digital Spy. “We began thinking that our notions would meld, and I should’ve listened more closely to what they really were wanting. I think Universal has had to come to a kind of reckoning of, ‘What are we doing with the Dark Universe?’ and, ‘What is our real intention with it?’, and I think they’re reconfiguring it now, which I think is probably good. So I’m not working on it.”

Fans were initially excited for the shared universe, as films like Benicio del Toro’s The Wolfman and Aaron Eckhart’s I, Frankenstein recently used iconic characters in lackluster ways, priming the characters for a revival.

The Dark Universe was teased years ago, with Dracula Untold set to be a soft launch of the universe. That film underperformed, which made last year’s Tom Cruise-starring The Mummy the default kick-off of the shared monster movies.

Much like Dracula Untold, The Mummy was also poorly received, both critically and financially. With the fanfare surrounding the Dark Universe and with names like Cruise, Depp, Russell Crowe and Javier Bardem announced, it was too late to abandon the concept altogether.

Beauty and the Beast director Bill Condon was attached to direct a Bride of Frankenstein remake, yet the film kept suffering delays before it was officially pulled from the schedule. Bardem was slated to star as Frankenstein’s Monster, with the titular Bride seemingly never cast.

Taking into account The Mummy‘s poor reception, the indefinite delay on Bride of Frankenstein and the Invisible Man‘s writer abandoning the project, the future looks dark for the Dark Universe.

[H/T Digital Spy]