Universal Monsters Set for New YA Reboot From ‘Scream 7’ Director Kevin Williamson!!

30 years ago, Kevin Williamson helped revive the moribund slasher horror genre of the 1970s and 1980s. Now, he’s going even further back in time to work with some of the most classic horror properties in cinema history. The Scream scribe has a new project for Universal that will resurrect the classic Universal Monsters for a new project he describes as “an adult Vampire Diaries.”

In a new interview with Esquire promoting Scream 7, which he both wrote and directed, Williamson teases his future projects for Universal; he notes that the studio was kind enough to let him pause on them to take the reins of the horror franchise he and Wes Craven launched in 1996. He’s writing a TV show for Universal featuring the Universal Monsters, and he’s having a scream doing it: “It’s based in the Universal monster land. I get to play with some of those characters like Dracula and Frankenstein and the Wolf Man and have fun there.” It’s the latest in Universal‘s attempts to bring those iconic fiends together, and they’re banking on this one to succeed: given that Williamson‘s latest stab at Scream had the highest-grossing opening weekend of the franchise, they might just make it work this time.

What Are the Universal Monsters?

In Hollywood’s early days, Universal was the place to go for high-class horror. Starting in the silent era with Lon Chaney Sr.‘s The Phantom of the Opera and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the studio excelled in the early days of sound with black-and-white chillers like Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, and The Wolf Man, featuring a stable of stars like Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Claude Rains, and Lon Chaney Jr. As they entered the 1940s, Universal created the first “cinematic universe,” mixing and matching its monsters for team-up movies like Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man and House of Dracula. While the movies eventually tapered off, they were later repackaged for TV, making them into permanent icons of fear seen in everything from action figures to postage stamps to Cars-style cartoons.

However, Universal‘s recent attempts to reclaim their past gory glory have not met with much success. 2004’s Van Helsing, with Hugh Jackman as the titular monster hunter, was intended to kick off a franchise, but was met with a disappointing reception. Likewise, 2014’s Dracula Untold attempted to give the lord of the vampires an MCU-style makeover; it was soon overhauled for 2017’s The Mummy, which was the first movie of the studio’s Dark Universe. It was also the last movie of the Dark Universe; despite the presence of Tom Cruise, the movie sank beneath the box office sands, never to be seen again.