…mostly because someone else is doing the same basic thing instead.
Michael Bay’s production company Platinum Dunes (also Andrew Form, Brad Fuller and others) was originally set up to create modern remakes of 70s and 80s horror franchises like Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Nightmare on Elm Street, though it’s branched out to other material since then. One long-planned project for the company would’ve been a remake of the 1980s high-concept kiddie creature-feature The Monster Squad – but now that project seems to have stalled.
When asked about the status of the remake at a press event for their new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot, Form confirmed that development has ceased, with Fuller adding “That’s dead.” They did not elaborate further, but it’s speculated that the move could be in response to Universal’s recent announcement of an ambitious project to create a Marvel-style “shared universe” of films based around characters like Dracula, Frankenstein, etc.
Released in 1987 and best described as a classic-horror takeoff on The Goonies, The Monster Squad is named from a group of small town American grade-school kids who form a club based around their shared love of old monster movies. When Count Dracula arrives in their town along with an all-star team of fellow (real) monsters including The Mummy, Frankenstein’s Monster, The Wolf-Man and the Creature From the Black Lagoon seeking a hidden artifact that will allow him to rule the world, The Monster Squad must call on their expertise to stop him. The original film was written by Iron Man 3’s Shane Black and directed by Fred Dekker, who are currently sharing those duties (but in reverse) on the recently-greenlit Predator revival.
Source: Collider
