Alex Kurtzman talks Universals monster movie project

Alex Kurtzman has been discussing Universal’s newly announced plans for a shared universe of classic movie monsters, and has outlined how he and co-writer Chris Morgan intend to go about bringing it to life.

“Front and centre right now is Chris Morgan and I working on getting The Mummy off the ground and building up our Monster Universe,” says Kurtzman. “That’s where I’m spending my time.”

“I think it’s incredibly important to all of us to start focusing on each movie, and make each movie great, rather than thinking, ‘Okay, we want to do The Avengers next,’” he continues.

“If that comes along, it will come along organically. When I was a kid, going to Universal Studios, which was all I wanted to do, all the time, there was a show that was all the monsters, and I loved that show. I was obsessed with Dracula. I was obsessed with Frankenstein. I was obsessed with the Wolfman.”

“This guy used to get stretched on a rack, live and in front of the audience. It was so cool. It’s very exciting. It’s like being a kid in a candy store, getting to play with all those things again, at the very studio that birthed these monsters in the first place.”

"Most importantly, we’re really wanting to just do each one right. I think the world will come to us, if we build them correctly. Some monsters will get their own movie. Other monsters will appear in other movies, as secondary characters. The balance of that is what we’re working out right now.”

All of which sounds rather exciting, providing Kurtzman and and Morgan aren’t rushed into throwing characters together too quickly in some sort of Van Helsing -esque mish-mash.

We’ll get some idea of what to expect when the first in the series, The Mummy , opens in the UK on 22 April 2016.