Universal Is Rebooting All Their Classic Monsters in a New Cinematic Universe

I'm generally not a fan of rebooting popular movie franchises. Sure, they get it right sometimes, as Warner Brothers did when they hired Christopher Nolan to reboot Batman. But most of the time the reboots are unnecessary. (The Amazing Spider-Man, anyone?)

That said, when I heard that Universal was going to reboot their classic movie monsters with with a brand new, possibly shared cinematic universe, that immediately struck me as an absolutely brilliant idea. While all these monsters are public domain now, and lots of studios have made updated Dracula, Frankenstein, and Werewolf pictures, none of these efforts have been part of a larger vision.

Universal has a vision, though. They hired Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan to serve as the architects of new monster universe in which the individual films are "cohesive" and "connected." And according to Deadline, the first film in the new universe will be a new take on the Mummy in 2016. After that it's anybody's guess, but you'd have to assume all the regulars will get a picture - Dracula, Frankenstien, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Invisible Man, the Wolf Man, and so on.

There's no guarantee that this new Universal Monsters universe will be any good, of course. But the concept is exciting for anyone who loves classic cinema and is getting tired of superheros.