io9: the creature from the black lagoon

The Creature From The Black Lagoon Rises Again, With A Director!

Meredith Woerner — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 06:30:00 PST

It would seem that all the original monsters are getting remade, what with the vampire surplus and and Wolf Man movie, it's only fair that the Creature should get his turn. And now he will. And it might be good!

Variety announced that Universal Pictures is in early talks with well known commercial director, Carl Erik Rinsch, to bring back the Creature from The Black Lagoon.

Carl Erik Rinsch was originally picked by Ridley Scott to helm the much buzzed about Alien prequel, but now Scott has taken over that director's chair himself. The script is by Gary Ross, who previously stated that is will have, "scientific underpinnings."

[Picture via inknerd by Alfie Lamberger at Mark of the Sparks Tattoos]

The Creature From The Black Lagoon Reemerges Gill By Gill

Meredith Woerner — Tue, 06 May 2008 11:50:00 PDT

The Creature From The Black Lagoon's fish-man is back, in a new remake of the 1954 classic. And the new version of the Creature has already been designed. Director Breck Eisner wants the new movie to be as scary as the original, but also wants you to empathize with the misunderstood and woman-craving mutant Gilly.

Once Eisner is done retooling George Romero's The Crazies he's set to focus all attention on The Creature. Taking the 1950s classic even further Eisner decided to film the Amazon based at the wild rivers banks.

I'm waiting on the height of the Amazon river before we start shooting - it drops 50 feet in October and November. But we've got the boat set and everything ready to go.

Gary Ross (Big and Pleasantville) has finished the screenplay and it is currently under going edits. The Creature is set in modern day times. And as for the tone, will it be camp, action or a straightforward creature feature? Eisner explained:

We debated tone a thousand times. For me tone is the most interesting thing a filmmaker has and so the Creature is a creature, it's not a monster. That's my number one thing about the movie. We're not going to turn him into a monster. He's still going to be empathetic, he's still going to be deadly, he's still going to have a misguided means of expressing his interests in a woman, but it's uniquely the Creature. It's empathy for a deadly creature and tone plays a big part of that....It will deliver of action and excitement, but I want it to be scary. The Creature was scary when it first came out in '54 - it's not scary today - but that's what updating means to me, updating the tone of the original.

The Creature itself has been designed after 6 months of work. Eisner claims that it's, "very faithful to the original, but updated." Let's hope they don't get too crazy with computer graphics and FX, a man in a suit always made it particularly creepy.[Shock Till You Drop]

Your Chance To Wear Christopher Reeve's Shorts

Kevin Kelly — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 10:20:07 PST

Now you can literally tug on Superman's cape (or the whole outfit), slip on Batman's boots, and put on Marty McFly's jacket... all at the same time. The Pugliese Pop Culture Collection, featuring a slew of original items from classic scifi, is currently on auction. You can bid on everything above and more, including the Creature to the Black Lagoon's mask, and Oddjob's razor-brimmed hat from Goldfinger.

If you're into hats, the auction has a ton of 'em as well. Besides the aforementioned hat from Oddjob, you can also pick up the bowler hat worn by Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange. While some of the items are fetching a high price, you can pick up something like this prop newspaper from Superman for only a hundred bucks.

The sheer amount of stuff they're auctioning off is staggering. Anthony Pugliese was either the world's biggest packrat, or had the idea to auction this stuff off a long time ago. It reminds us of the episode of Amazing Stories called "Gather Ye Acorns," where Mark Hamill kept all of his childhood toys, and then auctioned them off to become rich when he was older. If I'd done then, then maybe I could afford Humphrey Bogart's hat from The Caine Mutiny. [Thanks Plague]