Creature from the Black Lagoon

Creature from the Black Lagoon was novelized in 1954 by John Russell Fearn, using the pseudonym "Vargo Statten". Walter Harris, using the pseudonym "Carl Dreadstone", novelized the creature in a 1977 mass market paperback, part of a short-lived series of books based on the classic Universal horror films. The novel, with an introduction by British fantasist Ramsey Campbell, offers a completely different Gill-man, who in this version is gigantic, being almost as big as the Rita herself, and weighing in at 30 tons. The creature is both coldblooded and warmblooded, is a hermaphrodite, and also possesses a long, whip-like tail. The gigantic creature is dubbed "AA", for "Advanced Amphibian", by the expedition team members. After slaying most of them, destroying a Sikorsky helicopter, and kidnapping Kay more than once, the huge Gill-Man is killed by the crew of a United States Navy torpedo boat.

The 1977 novel also rewrites most of its human characters. Only David Reed and Kay Lawrence remain the same. Mark Williams is now a German named "Bruno Gebhardt" and dies, not from drowning, but by the creature falling on him. Lucas is renamed "Jose Goncalves Fonseca de Souza", and is a sympathetic character until he suggests throwing the wounded and unconscious Reed to the Gill-Man. An enraged Gebhardt/Williams instead throws him to the creature. Dr. Thompson and Dr. Maia suffer grisly deaths this time, whereas in the film they both survived. Maia is eaten by the Gill-Man, and Thompson is impaled by the creature, using a long tree branch like a spear (an apparent nod to a deleted scene from Revenge of the Creature, wherein the Gill-Man kills a guard in this fashion).

Creature from the Black Lagoon spawned two sequels: Revenge of the Creature (1955), which was also filmed and released in 3D in hopes of reviving the format, and The Creature Walks Among Us (1956), filmed in 2D. A comedic appearance with Abbott and Costello on an episode of The Colgate Comedy Hour aired prior to the film's release. The appearance is commonly known as Abbott and Costello Meet the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

In 1982, John Landis wanted Jack Arnold to direct a remake of the film, and Nigel Kneale was commissioned to write the screenplay. Kneale completed the script, which involved a pair of creatures, one destructive and the other calm and sensitive, being persecuted by the United States Navy.[9] A decision to make the film in 3D led to the remake being canceled by producers at Universal, both for budgetary concerns and to avoid a clash with Jaws 3-D.[9]

In 1992, John Carpenter was developing the remake at Universal.[10] He originally hired Bill Phillips to write the script while Rick Baker was hired to create the 3D model of the Creature, but the project never got green-lit.

Herschel Weingrod and Timothy Harris wrote a new script,[11] and Universal offered Peter Jackson the director's chair in 1995, but he chose to work instead on King Kong.[12]

In February 1996, Ivan Reitman was planning to direct the remake, but it never materialized.[11]

With the financial success of The Mummy remake in May 1999, development of the Creature from the Black Lagoon remake was revived.[13] In December 2001, Gary Ross signed on to write and produce the remake with his father, Arthur A. Ross, one of the original's writers. He told The Hollywood Reporter, "The story my father wrote embodies the clash between primitive men and civilized men, and that obviously makes it a fertile area for re-examination".[14]

In August 2002, Guillermo del Toro, a fan of the original feature, was attached to direct a remake.[15] He had hoped to do a story focused more on the Creature's viewpoint, while also letting him have a successful romantic liaison. He would later go on to turn this idea into the 2017 film The Shape of Water, after Universal rejected the concept.[16] Because of these creative clashes and his commitments to many other projects, Universal was forced to drop del Toro and hired Tedi Sarafian (credited on Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines) to write a script in March 2003.[17]

In October 2005, Breck Eisner signed on as director. "As a kid, I remember loving Jack Arnold's original version of this film", he explained. "What I really want to do is update an iconic image from the '50s and bring in more of the sci-fi sensibility of Alien or John Carpenter's The Thing (1982)".[18] Ross said in March 2007 the Gill-man's origin would be reinvented, with him being the result of a pharmaceutical corporation polluting the Amazon. "It's about the rainforest being exploited for profit", he said.[19]

However, the production was delayed by the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike; as a result, Eisner instead made The Crazies (2010), the number one project on his priority list. His new goal was to finish The Crazies and then begin filming Creature from the Black Lagoon in Manaus, Brazil and on the Amazon River in Peru. Eisner was inspired to shoot on location by the film Fitzcarraldo, and the boat set had been built. Eisner continued to rewrite the script, which was to be a summer blockbuster full of "action and excitement, but [still] scary". Eisner spent six months designing the new incarnation of the Gill-man with Mark McCreery (Jurassic Park, and Davy Jones' designer). The director said the new design was "very faithful to the original, but updated" and that the Gill-man would still remain sympathetic.[20]

In 2009, it was reported that Carl Erik Rinsch might direct a 2010 remake that would be produced by Marc Abraham, Eric Newman, and Gary Ross;[21][22] however, a project featuring the ensemble had been abandoned by 2011.

In March 2012, Universal announced that a remake was in production and would simply be titled The Black Lagoon rather than Creature from the Black Lagoon, in order to distinguish between the two versions. In October 2012, the studio hired Dave Kajganich to write the film.[23] The film was expected to hit theaters by May 2014, but was ultimately cancelled.

Universal Pictures, beginning as early as 2014, began developing a shared universe of rebooted modern-day versions of their classic Universal Monsters, with the studio having various films in different stages of development. The series began with The Mummy (2017) and was intended to be followed by the remake of Bride of Frankenstein in 2019 prior to the critical and commercial failure of The Mummy. The Creature from the Black Lagoon was a remake also intended to be developed within the reboot with a story written by Jeff Pinkner and a script written by Will Beall. In June 2017, Kurtzman revealed that the Gill-man in this film would be from the Amazon.[24] However, on November 8, 2017, Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan moved on to other projects, leaving the future of the Dark Universe even further in doubt.[25]

On January 15, 2018, it was reported by Omega Underground that the production team for the Bride of Frankenstein had reassembled and were considering Gal Gadot for the lead role.[26]

The 2017 film The Shape of Water was partly inspired by Guillermo del Toro's childhood memories of Creature from the Black Lagoon; he wished to see the Gill-man and the film's co-star Julie Adams succeed in their "romance".[27] Shape of Water later became one of the only fantasy films to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.