Why CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON Hasn't Been Remade Yet

In the last twenty years,Hollywood has remade all the great cinematic horror film monsters from Dracula to Frankenstein's Monster then to the Wolfman to the Mummy and then from Invisible Man to the Phantom of the Opera and finally to the modern monsters like Freddy Krueger to Jason Voorhees to Michael Myers to Leatherface in recent remakes in the last ten years.But there has been only one famous cult cinematic monster who hasn't be remade in any way or film in the last almost sixty years since he made his first motion picture appearance in 1954: the Creature From the Black Lagoon!

The Creature From The Black Lagoon or the Gill Man as it was called in the three films the character appeared in the 1950's, was Universal Studios last successful and popular monster in films after Count Dracula,the Frankenstein Monster,the Wolfman,the Mummy,the Invisble Man and the Phantom of the Opera in famous Universal Studio horror films of the 1930's and 1940's.The advantage was that the Gill Man first appeared in films in the early 1950's just when the first wave of 3D films started to be made and the CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON(1954)was Universal's second 3D film and most importantly,the second Universal science fiction made in the then new 3D process after the successful IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE(1953) which was also directed by Jack Arnold who would then direct the first and second of the "Gill Man"Film Trilogy,THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON(1954) and REVENGE OF THE CREATURE(1955) both made in 3D.

After the third film in the series, THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US(1956) the only film not made in 3D or directed by Jack Arnold, there were no more films about the Gill Man made by Universal and no other films regarding the character in more than fifty years after the last film in the series,except an homage to the Creature in Fred Dekker's cult horror comedy THE MONSTER SQUAD(1987) which was an ode to all of Universal's famous monsters but the Creature had to be called the Gill Man in that film for copyright reasons since that film was made by Columbia Pictures/TriStar.There has been various unsuccessful attempts by Universal Pictures to remake the CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON in the last thirty years and various famous cult horror directors have been assigned to the project from John Carpenter(HALLOWEEN) to John Landis(AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON) to Ivan Reitman(GHOSTBUSTERS)to Guillermo Del Toro(HELLBOY) to recently Breck Eisner(THE CRAZIES remake) and Peter Jackson (KING KONG).But none of them were able to tackle successful the project to remake this classic science fiction/horror film of the 1950's ,despite failed attempts by other famous screenwriters such as Nigel Kneale(the QUARTERMASS films), Teddy Sarafian(writer of TERMINATOR 3:RISE OF THE MACHINES), Gary Ross(son of CREATURE's original writer Arthur Ross and co-writer of THE MUMMY & THE MUMMY RETURNS) to adapt the original script of THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON to the sensebilities of today's moviegoing audiences. Which is very ironic considering that we are now in another wave of 3D films thanks to the success of James Cameron's AVATAR(2009) and it would be logical to make a new version of THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON today in the new improved 3D process, But seeing how badly the majority of today's remakes of the classic horror films have been made,it might be secretly a real blessing that the"Gill Man" hasn't been subject to a updated remake like all the other famous Hollywood movie monsters,until the right talented film director and screenwriter can do the right cinematic approach to bring back the Creature from the Black Lagoon to the big screen in today's 3D process.