Updated: CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON Remake Moving Forward Without Breck Eisner? Not So Fast Mr Beaks!

Hey folks, Harry here - just received an email from Gary Ross in the dead of night, guess he's a night owl like me. Gary and I once spent hours talking about his father's work and plans for a remake of CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON all the way back around the time of PLEASANTVILLE... anyway, you don't want to hear about old stories, you want to hear what Gary had to say about Latino Review's story. It seems that it was at an end of a long junket for Gary, and he was needing to make a bathroom break and didn't want to really chime in on another director's directing ideas and answered with all the consideration that one tired of questions and needing a bathroom break makes... ie... not an expanded and thoughtful response. First off, BRECK EISNER is very much attached and he regrets giving anyone an impression to the otherwise. And he said, "I PROMISE the creature will not be some weird CG invention that disappoints his loyal fans." He also wanted to thank Beaks for the kind words about his father below... So that's the real story from Gary Ross!

Beaks here...

A year ago, Breck Eisner was headed for South America to shoot the remake of CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON for Universal and writer/producer Gary Ross. Then the WGA strike happened, Eisner moved on to another remake (of George A. Romero's no-frills classic, THE CRAZIES), and it was off to development hell with The Gill Man. Now comes word from Latino Review's George "El Guapo" Roush that the CREATURE redo might be moving forward again. Speaking with Ross at today's THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX press junket, Roush learned that a) they're hoping to shoot the movie next year, b) Eisner is apparently off the project, and c) they're talking to "some directors". As for whether one of those directors is Rob Zombie (a possibility I wasn't aware of), Ross wouldn't say. Ross also discussed the tone of his CREATURE script and the possibility of CG monster (No!). Click here to read the rest of his comments. (Very sorry to hear that Ross's father, Arthur, who wrote the first CREATURE and the fascinating third film in the series, THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US, passed away two weeks ago.)