CURSE OF THE CREATURE

AFTER MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY, HOLLYWOOD STILL CAN'T LURE THE GILL-MAN BACK TO THE BIG SCREEN

- JOE NAZZARO

IT’S BEEN MORE THAN 70 YEARS SINCE the eponymous amphibian of Creature From The Black Lagoon shambled his way onto American cinema screens and into the hearts of moviegoers round the world. But despite almost Universal recognition (pun intended), the studio's so-called “Gill-man” is their only iconic movie monster to never get a remake.

It’s certainly not for lack of trying; more than a dozen A-list filmmakers have been involved in various attempts over the years, but none of them have even got to the cinematic starting gate, let alone a finish line.

CREATURE FEATURE

The first real attempt to reboot the franchise came in 1982 thanks to John Landis, who approached the original film’s director Jack Arnold to helm a remake that Landis would produce from a script by Nigel Kneale. The new screenplay would feature two creatures; one “calm and sensitive”, the other more destructive in temperament, both of who are targeted by the US Navy.

The creature effects would have been handled by Rick Baker, who had recently won a Best Makeup Oscar for his work with Landis on An American Werewolf In London. Writing in his recent autobiography, Metamorphosis, Baker said, “I was contacted a couple of times about the Creature remake. John Landis and Joe Dante were both involved, but nothing happened.”

“Rick Baker would have done it,” confirms Landis, “and there were preliminary designs, but nothing concrete. The studio chose to make Jaws 3D instead.”

As Kneale recounted in the 2006 biography Into The Unknown: The Fantastic Life Of Nigel Kneale, he had worked out a rough screenplay that he was pleased with, featuring lots of humour and a cast of characters that was “bang up to date. Then came the problem: the horrendous cost of the special effects, costumes, etc. This created a great wrangle over the budget, and then