Paul Feig Hopes His Universal Monsters Movie Dark Army Is His Next Production

As Universal’s plans to rehabilitate their classic monsters continues, one filmmaker that’s been attached to a project at the studio for a while might have his film on the horizon very soon. Paul Feig of Ghostbusters and Bridesmaids fame has been developing a movie titled “Dark Army” for the studio which, unlike films like The Invisible Man and their planned reboot of The Wolfman, doesn’t make it clear what creatures of the night will inhabit it. That said, Feig revealed in a new interview that there’s been some “positive momentum” on the film’s development and he’s hoping to shoot it next.

“I’m desperate to do it,” Feig revealed to Collider. “Universal had a moment of pause because I think it seemed a little too expensive at the scope that I did it at, so I’m going to go in and do a rewrite to kind of bring it down. I mean the scope will still be big, but I actually think they were right, I think I was trying to bite off more than I probably should for what I would hope would be the first installment in something I want to carry on, so I’m rewriting that right now and fingers crossed that could be the next thing I could do. That’s the genre that I’ve been wanting to do forever, just a classic monster movie. Not a horror movie, but a classic monster movie in the tradition of the James Whale and Tod Browning movies. So yeah, hopefully that will be up next.”

Referencing directors like James Whale and Tod Browning will likely have some film fans jazzed about the prospect of Feig’s project. Whale was the mastermind behind Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, and The Bride of Frankenstein at Universal Studios while Tod Browning directed Dracula (in addition to Freaks for MGM). Naturally the Frankenstein movies seem to be a major touchstone for Feig

“[Frankenstein’s Monster] is such a tragic character,” the filmmaker said in a previous interview. “That’s the kind of feel I want with this. It’ll be funny, but it’s not a spoof. It’s fun and funny in the interactions of these characters, but the situations are very real and serious. I hope we get to make it.”

It was previously reported that Feig’s movie “will feature both new characters and iconic members of the Universal Monster library” while another Hollywood trade claimed that “the film won’t feature any connection to the Universal Monsters.” For now we’ll just have to wait and see.

Stay tuned for further details on Dark Army as we learn about it.