Universal has tapped the team behind box office hit Invisible Man to take on its latest monster movie, Wolfman.
Director Leigh Whannell is in talks to helm the feature that is set to star Ryan Gosling, with Jason Blum’s Blumhouse on board to produce.
The teamwork with the studio on the Elisabeth Moss-fronted Invisible Man, which has grossed more than $124 million at the worldwide box and has a 91 percent fresh rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
While details for the plot are being ket under wraps, sources say Gosling would play an anchorman who gets infected. The script has been described as having a vibe that evokes Network (1976) and Nightcrawler (2014).
Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo penned the script.
Universal’s revamp of their classic monster properties began with The Mummy, starring Tom Cruise, which was poorly received by both critics and at the box office. Before the release of The Mummy, an interconnected series of movies — dubbed The Dark Universe — was planned for a time, but the studio reassessed and has instead pushed forward with standalone properties. And the success of Invisible Man fast-tracked the studio’s monster movie efforts.
Other monster movie properties being developed by Universal include Elizabeth Banks’ The Invisible Woman, Karyn Kusama’s Dracula, the Dracula-themed Renfield from Dexter Fletcher and Paul Feig’s Dark Army.
Whannell, who recently signed a first-look deal across film and television with Blumhouse, is repped by CAA and Myman Greenspan.
