Creature from the Black Lagoon
Encyclopedia
Creature from the Black Lagoon is a 1954 monster horror film directed by Jack Arnold, and starring Richard Carlson, Julia Adams
, Richard Denning
, Antonio Moreno
, and Whit Bissell
. The eponymous creature was played by Ben Chapman
on land and Ricou Browning
in underwater scenes. The film was released in the United States on March 5, 1954.
Creature from the Black Lagoon was filmed and originally released in 3-D
requiring polarized 3-D glasses, and subsequently reissued in the 1970s in the inferior anaglyph
format (this version was released on home video by MCA Videocassette, Inc. in 1980). It was one of the first Universal
films filmed in 3-D (the first was It Came from Outer Space
, which was released a year before). It is considered a classic of the 1950s, and generated two sequels, Revenge of the Creature
and The Creature Walks Among Us
. Revenge of the Creature was also filmed and released in 3-D, in hopes of reviving the format.
uncovers fossil
ized evidence from the Devonian
period of a link between land and sea animals in the form of a skeletal hand with webbed fingers. Expedition leader Dr. Carl Maia (Antonio Moreno
) visits his friend, Dr. David Reed (Richard Carlson), an ichthyologist who works at a marine biology
institute. Reed persuades the institute's financial backer, Dr. Mark Williams (Richard Denning
), to fund a return expedition to the Amazon to look for the remainder of the skeleton.
They go aboard a tramp steamer, the Rita, which is captained by a crusty old codger named Lucas (Nestor Paiva
). The expedition consists of Dr. Reed, Dr. Maia and Williams, as well as Reed's girlfriend, Kay Lawrence (Julia Adams
), and another scientist, Dr. Thompson (Whit Bissell
). When they arrive at Dr. Maia's camp, they discover that his entire research team has been mysteriously killed while he was away. Lucas suggests it was done by a jaguar
, but the others are unsure. In fact, the camp was attacked by a piscine amphibious humanoid, a living member of the same species from which the fossil
originated. The creature, curious upon seeing the expedition, investigates the camp site, but when its sudden appearance frightens the members, they attack it, and in response, the enraged creature kills them.
The excavation of the area where Maia found the hand turns up nothing. Mark is ready to give up the search, but David suggests that perhaps thousands of years ago the part of the embankment containing the rest of the skeleton fell into the water and was washed downriver. Lucas says that the tributary empties into a lagoon known as the "Black Lagoon", a paradise from which no one has ever returned. The scientists decide to risk it, unaware that the amphibious "Gill-man
" that killed Dr. Maia's assistants earlier has been watching them. Taking notice of the beautiful Kay, it follows the Rita all the way downriver to the Black Lagoon. Once the expedition arrives, David and Mark go diving to collect fossils from the lagoon floor. After they return, Kay goes swimming and is stalked underwater by the creature, who then gets briefly caught in one of the ship's draglines. Although it escapes, it leaves behind a claw
in the net, revealing its existence to the scientists.
Subsequent encounters with the Gill-man claim the lives of two of Lucas's crew members, before the Gill-man is captured and locked in a cage on board the Rita. It escapes during the night and attacks Dr. Thompson, who was guarding it. Kay hits the beast with a lantern; driving it off before it can kill Dr. Thompson. Following this incident, David decides they should return to civilization, but as the Rita tries to leave, they find the entrance blocked by fallen logs, courtesy of the escaped Gill-man.
While the others attempt to remove the logs, Mark is mauled to death trying to capture the creature single-handedly underwater. The creature then abducts Kay and takes her to his cavern lair. David, Lucas, and Dr. Maia give chase to save her. Kay is rescued and the creature is riddled with bullets before he retreats to the lagoon where his body sinks in the watery depths, presumably dead.
was attending a dinner party during the filming of Citizen Kane
(in which he played the reporter Thompson) in 1941 when Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa
told him about the myth of a race of half-fish, half-human creatures in the Amazon river. Alland wrote story notes entitled "The Sea Monster" ten years later. His inspiration was Beauty and the Beast
. In December 1952, Maurice Zimm
expanded this into a treatment, which Harry Essex
and Arthur Ross rewrote as The Black Lagoon. Following the success of the 3-D film
House of Wax
in 1953, Jack Arnold was hired to direct the film in the same format.
The designer of the approved Gill-man was Disney
animator Millicent Patrick, though her role was deliberately downplayed by makeup artist Bud Westmore
, who for half a century would receive sole credit for the creature's conception. Jack Kevan, who worked on The Wizard of Oz
and made prosthetics for amputees during World War II, created the bodysuit, while Chris Mueller, Jr. sculpted the head.
Ben Chapman
portrayed the Gill-man for the majority of the film shot at Universal City, California
. The costume made it impossible for Chapman to sit for the 14 hours of each day that he wore it, and it overheated easily, so he stayed in the backlot's lake, often requesting to be hosed down. He also could not see very well while wearing the headpiece, which caused him to scrape Julie Adams' head against the wall when carrying her in the grotto scenes. Ricou Browning
played the Gill-Man in the underwater shots, which were filmed by the second unit
in Wakulla Springs
, Florida.
Many of the on-top of the water scenes were filmed at Rice Creek near Palatka, Florida.
in 1977, in paperback under the pseudonym of "Carl Dreadstone", as part of a short-lived series of books based on the classic Universal horror films. The book was introduced by Ramsey Campbell, but was written by Walter Harris. The novel offers a completely different Gill-man, who in this version of the story is gigantic, almost as big as the Rita herself, weighing in at 30 tons. It is both coldblooded and warmblooded, is a hermaphrodite
, and also possesses a long whip-like tail. The gigantic creature is dubbed "AA", for "Advanced Amphibian", by the expedition team members. After slaying most of the team members, destroying a Sikorsky
helicopter, and kidnapping Kay more than once, the creature is killed by the crew of a US Navy torpedo boat
.
The novel also differs greatly with respect to the human characters. Only David Reed and Kay Lawrence remain the same. Mark Williams is a German named "Bruno Gebhardt", and dies not as a result from drowning but by the monster falling on him. Lucas is named "Jose Goncalves Fonseca de Souza" and is a mostly sympathetic character until his suggestion of throwing the wounded and unconscious Reed to the monster makes an enraged Gebhardt/Williams throw him to the beast instead. Dr. Thompson and Dr. Maia both die grisly deaths, whereas in the movie they survive; Maia is eaten by the monster, and Thompson is impaled on a long tree branch flung at him by the creature like a spear (in an apparent nod to a deleted scene from Revenge of the Creature wherein the Gill-man killed a guard in this fashion).
opened at Universal Studios Hollywood
in late June 2009. It has also been widely referenced, in part due to its groundbreaking character, in other media. In fact, many movies featuring monsters put a Gill-man likeness in the background as homage. More directly, the Gill-man appeared in the Robot Chicken
episode "Shoe", voiced by Seth Green
. He tells a guy that he prefers the lagoon to be called the "African-American Lagoon."
The Monster also appears in "We are a Humble Factory", now voiced by Breckin Meyer
, where Count Chocula
, FrankenBerry
, and BooBerry
are angrily mentioned by him, as well Fruity Yummy Mummy
and Fruit Brute
. The creature decides to make his own cereal called "Creature with the Black Macaroons" because macaroon sounds like lagoon; however, the cereal wasn't successful and when all the cereals were dumped into his lagoon, he says "I should've gone with legumes", as legume also sounds like lagoon. Its likeness was also used for the film The Monster Squad
. However, due to licensing issues with Universal, the creature is referred to as "Gill-Man."
Ben Chapman introduced the creature in costume with Abbott and Costello
on live television on an episode of The Colgate Comedy Hour
. Even earlier, in The Seven Year Itch
, the film is referenced when Tom Ewell
and Marilyn Monroe
come out of a theatre showing Creature from the Black Lagoon. Monroe expresses some sympathy for the creature, saying that it was not really bad and "just wanted to be loved". The creature plays a brief cameo emerging from Lake Springfield in the Simpsons animated TV series—see the 10th episode of Season 16.
Creature from the Black Lagoon was later made into a pinball
game, designed by John Trudeau (AKA "Dr. Flash"), and released in 1992 by Midway
(under the Bally brand name). This game has a retro 1950s drive-in theme. It also features such 50s classic songs like Rock Around the Clock, Get a Job, and Summertime Blues. Completing side missions in the pinball game causes the screen to display "Universal Presents... Creature from the Black Lagoon", and then requires the player to chase after the monster just like in the film. The game sold 7,841 units.
A series of children's books, written by Mike Thaler and Jared Lee, paradigm the film. Beginning with The Teacher From the Black Lagoon, it continued with The Principal..., The Gym Teacher... and several others.
The Marvel Comics
character Triton
of the Inhumans
is a green water breathing character resembling the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
The DC Comics
character Aquaman
donned a suit of armor resembling the Creature in the 2005–07 miniseries Justice
.
In The Nightmare Before Christmas
, there is a character in Halloween Town who is clearly meant to be the Creature from the Black Lagoon. In one song, it ponders the contents of Jack's present: "Perhaps it's the head that I found in the lake".
The film has been immortalized in paleontology
circles. When Jenny Clack
of the University of Cambridge discovered a fossil amphibian in what was once a fetid swamp, she named it Eucritta
melanolimnetes, which is Greek for "the creature from the black lagoon."
Though technically a merman, the character Rikuo in the Darkstalkers game series and his race bear a striking resemblance to the Gill-Man, and perhaps more so than any character in the game, remain very true to the source character, with Rikuo being from an area in Brazil near the Amazon. Even the character's name is a reference to one of the actors who played the creature.
Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13
a band from North Carolina who were fronted by now Murderdolls
lead singer and solo artist Wednesday 13
also did a song about the creature naming it Creature From The Black Lagoon.
The heavy metal band Iced Earth
also did a song about the creature called Dragon's Child on the Horror Show
album.
Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes: The Animated Series parodied the movie in "The Tomato From The Black Lagoon", where the gang looks for a missing tomato link in the San Zucchini Botanical Gardens and are stalked by an amphibious tomato who goes after Tara, who is also part tomato.
Abe Sapien
of Hellboy
fame was originally inspired by the film and its titular creature.
Funko released in October 2010 a 7-inch button eyed cuddly monster.
was keen on getting Arnold to direct a remake of the film, and Nigel Kneale
was commissioned to write the screenplay. Kneale completed the script, which involved a pair of creatures, one destructive and the other calm and sensitive, being persecuted by the US Navy. A decision to make the film in 3-D led to the remake being canceled by producers at Universal, both for budgetary concerns and to avoid a clash with Jaws 3-D
. In July 1992, John Carpenter
was developing the remake at Universal. Herschel Weingrod
and Timothy Harris wrote a new script, and Universal offered Peter Jackson
the director's position in 1995, but he choose to work on King Kong
instead. In February 1996, Ivan Reitman
was planning to direct the remake, but the outing never materialized. With the financial success of The Mummy
remake in May 1999, development of theCreature from the Black Lagoon remake was revived.
In December 2001, following the success of The Mummy
and The Mummy Returns
, Gary Ross
signed on to write and produce the remake with his father, Arthur A. Ross, one of the original's writers. He told The Hollywood Reporter
, "The story my father wrote embodies the clash between primitive men and civilized men, and that obviously makes it a fertile area for re-examination." In August 2002, Guillermo del Toro
, a fan of the original was attached as director. Because of his commitments to numerous other projects, Universal was forced to go without del Toro as director, and hired Tedi Sarafian
(credited on Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
) to write a script in March 2003.
In October 2005, Breck Eisner
signed on as director. "As a kid, I remember loving Jack Arnold's original version of this film", he explained. "What I really want to do is update an iconic image from the '50s and bring in more of the sci-fi sensibility of Alien
or John Carpenter
's The Thing." Ross said in March 2007 the Gill-man's origin would be reinvented, with him being the result of a pharmaceutical corporation polluting
the Amazon. "It's about the rainforest
being exploited for profit", he said.
The film was delayed by the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike, and Eisner put The Crazies
on his priority. Once he finishes filming that, he will begin filming Creature from the Black Lagoon in Manaus
, Brazil and on the Amazon River
in Peru. Eisner was inspired to shoot on location by Fitzcarraldo
, and the boat set has been built. Eisner continued to rewrite the script, which will be a summer blockbuster full of "action and excitement, but [still] scary". Eisner spent six months designing the new incarnation of the Gill-man with Mark McCreery (Jurassic Park
, and Davy Jones
' designer). The director said the design was "very faithful to the original, but updated", and that the Gill-man will still be sympathetic.
In 2009 it was reported that Carl Erik Rinsch might direct a 2010 remake that would be produced by Marc Abraham
, Eric Newman and Gary Ross
, however, a project featuring this ensemble had been abandoned by 2011.
Julie Adams
Julie Adams is an American film and television actress, sometimes credited as Julia Adams or Betty Adams.-Life and career:...
, Richard Denning
Richard Denning
Richard Denning , was an American actor who starred in such movies as Creature from the Black Lagoon and An Affair to Remember , and on radio with Lucille Ball as her husband George Cooper in My Favorite Husband , the forerunner of television's I Love Lucy, for which Denning was replaced by Ball's...
, Antonio Moreno
Antonio Moreno
Antonio "Tony" Moreno was a notable Spanish-born American actor and film director of the silent film era and through the 1950s.- Biography :...
, and Whit Bissell
Whit Bissell
Whitner Nutting Bissell , better known as Whit Bissell, was an American actor.-Early life:Born in New York City, Bissell was the son of prominent surgeon Dr. J. Dougal Bissell. He trained with the Carolina Playmakers, a theatrical organization associated with the University of North Carolina at...
. The eponymous creature was played by Ben Chapman
Ben Chapman (actor)
Benjamin F. Chapman, Jr. was an American actor best known as playing the Gill-man on land in the 1954 horror film Creature from the Black Lagoon...
on land and Ricou Browning
Ricou Browning
Ricou Browning is an American film director, actor, producer and underwater cinematographer and action specialist.Browning was born in Fort Pierce, Florida and was a physical education major at Florida State University. He grew up to start a career in water shows, moving on to produce shows...
in underwater scenes. The film was released in the United States on March 5, 1954.
Creature from the Black Lagoon was filmed and originally released in 3-D
3-D film
A 3-D film or S3D film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception...
requiring polarized 3-D glasses, and subsequently reissued in the 1970s in the inferior anaglyph
Anaglyph image
Anaglyph images are used to provide a stereoscopic 3D effect, when viewed with glasses where the two lenses are different colors, such as red and cyan. Images are made up of two color layers, superimposed, but offset with respect to each other to produce a depth effect...
format (this version was released on home video by MCA Videocassette, Inc. in 1980). It was one of the first Universal
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
films filmed in 3-D (the first was It Came from Outer Space
It Came from Outer Space
It Came from Outer Space is a 1953 science fiction 3-D film directed by Jack Arnold, and starring Richard Carlson, Barbara Rush, and Charles Drake. It was Universal's first film to be filmed in 3-D.- Plot :...
, which was released a year before). It is considered a classic of the 1950s, and generated two sequels, Revenge of the Creature
Revenge of the Creature
Revenge of the Creature is the first sequel to Creature from the Black Lagoon. The film is notable for being the only 3-D film to be released in 1955; the only 3-D sequel to a 3-D film; and for being the first screen role for Clint Eastwood. The movie was released May 11, 1955, in the United States...
and The Creature Walks Among Us
The Creature Walks Among Us
The Creature Walks Among Us is the third and final installment of the Creature from the Black Lagoon horror film series from Universal Pictures, following 1955's Revenge of the Creature. The film was released April 26, 1956, in the United States....
. Revenge of the Creature was also filmed and released in 3-D, in hopes of reviving the format.
Plot
A geology expedition in the AmazonAmazon Rainforest
The Amazon Rainforest , also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America...
uncovers fossil
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
ized evidence from the Devonian
Devonian
The Devonian is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic Era spanning from the end of the Silurian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya , to the beginning of the Carboniferous Period, about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya...
period of a link between land and sea animals in the form of a skeletal hand with webbed fingers. Expedition leader Dr. Carl Maia (Antonio Moreno
Antonio Moreno
Antonio "Tony" Moreno was a notable Spanish-born American actor and film director of the silent film era and through the 1950s.- Biography :...
) visits his friend, Dr. David Reed (Richard Carlson), an ichthyologist who works at a marine biology
Marine biology
Marine biology is the scientific study of organisms in the ocean or other marine or brackish bodies of water. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the environment rather...
institute. Reed persuades the institute's financial backer, Dr. Mark Williams (Richard Denning
Richard Denning
Richard Denning , was an American actor who starred in such movies as Creature from the Black Lagoon and An Affair to Remember , and on radio with Lucille Ball as her husband George Cooper in My Favorite Husband , the forerunner of television's I Love Lucy, for which Denning was replaced by Ball's...
), to fund a return expedition to the Amazon to look for the remainder of the skeleton.
They go aboard a tramp steamer, the Rita, which is captained by a crusty old codger named Lucas (Nestor Paiva
Nestor Paiva
Nestor Paiva was an American actor of Portuguese descent who portrayed the innkeeper on Walt Disney's live-action television series Zorro by ABC and its feature film The Sign of Zorro which was shot in Burbank's Walt Disney Studios.-Career:Nestor appeared in motion pictures and television shows...
). The expedition consists of Dr. Reed, Dr. Maia and Williams, as well as Reed's girlfriend, Kay Lawrence (Julia Adams
Julie Adams
Julie Adams is an American film and television actress, sometimes credited as Julia Adams or Betty Adams.-Life and career:...
), and another scientist, Dr. Thompson (Whit Bissell
Whit Bissell
Whitner Nutting Bissell , better known as Whit Bissell, was an American actor.-Early life:Born in New York City, Bissell was the son of prominent surgeon Dr. J. Dougal Bissell. He trained with the Carolina Playmakers, a theatrical organization associated with the University of North Carolina at...
). When they arrive at Dr. Maia's camp, they discover that his entire research team has been mysteriously killed while he was away. Lucas suggests it was done by a jaguar
Jaguar
The jaguar is a big cat, a feline in the Panthera genus, and is the only Panthera species found in the Americas. The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, and the largest in the Western Hemisphere. The jaguar's present range extends from Southern United States and Mexico...
, but the others are unsure. In fact, the camp was attacked by a piscine amphibious humanoid, a living member of the same species from which the fossil
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
originated. The creature, curious upon seeing the expedition, investigates the camp site, but when its sudden appearance frightens the members, they attack it, and in response, the enraged creature kills them.
The excavation of the area where Maia found the hand turns up nothing. Mark is ready to give up the search, but David suggests that perhaps thousands of years ago the part of the embankment containing the rest of the skeleton fell into the water and was washed downriver. Lucas says that the tributary empties into a lagoon known as the "Black Lagoon", a paradise from which no one has ever returned. The scientists decide to risk it, unaware that the amphibious "Gill-man
Gill-man
The Creature, sometimes referred to less ambiguously as the Gill-man, is the titular character of the 1954 black-and-white science fiction film Creature from the Black Lagoon and its two sequels Revenge of the Creature and The Creature Walks Among Us . Ricou Browning portrays the underwater...
" that killed Dr. Maia's assistants earlier has been watching them. Taking notice of the beautiful Kay, it follows the Rita all the way downriver to the Black Lagoon. Once the expedition arrives, David and Mark go diving to collect fossils from the lagoon floor. After they return, Kay goes swimming and is stalked underwater by the creature, who then gets briefly caught in one of the ship's draglines. Although it escapes, it leaves behind a claw
Claw
A claw is a curved, pointed appendage, found at the end of a toe or finger in most mammals, birds, and some reptiles. However, the word "claw" is also often used in reference to an invertebrate. Somewhat similar fine hooked structures are found in arthropods such as beetles and spiders, at the end...
in the net, revealing its existence to the scientists.
Subsequent encounters with the Gill-man claim the lives of two of Lucas's crew members, before the Gill-man is captured and locked in a cage on board the Rita. It escapes during the night and attacks Dr. Thompson, who was guarding it. Kay hits the beast with a lantern; driving it off before it can kill Dr. Thompson. Following this incident, David decides they should return to civilization, but as the Rita tries to leave, they find the entrance blocked by fallen logs, courtesy of the escaped Gill-man.
While the others attempt to remove the logs, Mark is mauled to death trying to capture the creature single-handedly underwater. The creature then abducts Kay and takes her to his cavern lair. David, Lucas, and Dr. Maia give chase to save her. Kay is rescued and the creature is riddled with bullets before he retreats to the lagoon where his body sinks in the watery depths, presumably dead.
Cast
- Antonio MorenoAntonio MorenoAntonio "Tony" Moreno was a notable Spanish-born American actor and film director of the silent film era and through the 1950s.- Biography :...
as Dr. Carl Maia - Ben ChapmanBen Chapman (actor)Benjamin F. Chapman, Jr. was an American actor best known as playing the Gill-man on land in the 1954 horror film Creature from the Black Lagoon...
as Gill-manGill-manThe Creature, sometimes referred to less ambiguously as the Gill-man, is the titular character of the 1954 black-and-white science fiction film Creature from the Black Lagoon and its two sequels Revenge of the Creature and The Creature Walks Among Us . Ricou Browning portrays the underwater...
(land) - Bernie Gozier as Zee
- Henry A. Escalante as Chico
- Julie AdamsJulie AdamsJulie Adams is an American film and television actress, sometimes credited as Julia Adams or Betty Adams.-Life and career:...
as Kay Lawrence - Nestor PaivaNestor PaivaNestor Paiva was an American actor of Portuguese descent who portrayed the innkeeper on Walt Disney's live-action television series Zorro by ABC and its feature film The Sign of Zorro which was shot in Burbank's Walt Disney Studios.-Career:Nestor appeared in motion pictures and television shows...
as Lucas - Perry LopezPerry LopezPerry Lopez was an American film and television actor. His acting career lasted over 40 years before his death in 2008....
as Tomas - Richard CarlsonRichard CarlsonRichard Carlson was an American actor, television and film director, and screenwriter.-Career:Born in Albert Lea, Minnesota, Carlson graduated from the University of Minnesota with an M.A. degree, Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa. He later appeared on the Broadway stage in the 1930s after studying...
as Dr. David Reed - Richard DenningRichard DenningRichard Denning , was an American actor who starred in such movies as Creature from the Black Lagoon and An Affair to Remember , and on radio with Lucille Ball as her husband George Cooper in My Favorite Husband , the forerunner of television's I Love Lucy, for which Denning was replaced by Ball's...
as Mark Williams - Ricou BrowningRicou BrowningRicou Browning is an American film director, actor, producer and underwater cinematographer and action specialist.Browning was born in Fort Pierce, Florida and was a physical education major at Florida State University. He grew up to start a career in water shows, moving on to produce shows...
as Gill-man (underwater) - Rodd RedwingRodd RedwingRodd Redwing , , was a Native American actor, noted for being the world’s greatest quick-draw artist with six-guns...
as Luis - Whit BissellWhit BissellWhitner Nutting Bissell , better known as Whit Bissell, was an American actor.-Early life:Born in New York City, Bissell was the son of prominent surgeon Dr. J. Dougal Bissell. He trained with the Carolina Playmakers, a theatrical organization associated with the University of North Carolina at...
as Dr. Edwin Thompson
Production
Producer William AllandWilliam Alland
William Alland was an American actor, producer, writer and director of science fiction and western films. He is perhaps best known for his role as reporter Jerry Thompson, who investigates the life of newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane in Orson Welle's Citizen Kane...
was attending a dinner party during the filming of Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film, directed by and starring Orson Welles. Many critics consider it the greatest American film of all time, especially for its innovative cinematography, music and narrative structure. Citizen Kane was Welles' first feature film...
(in which he played the reporter Thompson) in 1941 when Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa
Gabriel Figueroa
Gabriel Figueroa Mateos was a Mexican cinematographer who worked both in Mexican cinema and Hollywood....
told him about the myth of a race of half-fish, half-human creatures in the Amazon river. Alland wrote story notes entitled "The Sea Monster" ten years later. His inspiration was Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast is a traditional fairy tale. The first published version of the fairy tale was a rendition by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, published in La jeune américaine, et les contes marins in 1740...
. In December 1952, Maurice Zimm
Maurice Zimm
Maurice Zimm was an American radio, television and film writer whose most famous creation was the Creature from the Black Lagoon...
expanded this into a treatment, which Harry Essex
Harry Essex
Harry Essex was a prolific American screenwriter. He was born on 29 November 1910 in New York City. He died on 5 February 1997 in Los Angeles. His career spanned more than fifty years...
and Arthur Ross rewrote as The Black Lagoon. Following the success of the 3-D film
3-D film
A 3-D film or S3D film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception...
House of Wax
House of Wax (1953 film)
House of Wax is a 1953 American horror film starring Vincent Price. It is a remake of Warners' Mystery of the Wax Museum without the comic relief featured in the earlier film, and was directed by André de Toth...
in 1953, Jack Arnold was hired to direct the film in the same format.
The designer of the approved Gill-man was Disney
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
animator Millicent Patrick, though her role was deliberately downplayed by makeup artist Bud Westmore
Bud Westmore
Bud Westmore was a make-up artist in Hollywood.Son of George Westmore, a member of the Westmore family prominent in Hollywood make-up. He is credited on over 450 movies and television shows, including To Kill a Mockingbird, Man of a Thousand Faces, The Andromeda Strain and Creature from the Black...
, who for half a century would receive sole credit for the creature's conception. Jack Kevan, who worked on The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
and made prosthetics for amputees during World War II, created the bodysuit, while Chris Mueller, Jr. sculpted the head.
Ben Chapman
Ben Chapman (actor)
Benjamin F. Chapman, Jr. was an American actor best known as playing the Gill-man on land in the 1954 horror film Creature from the Black Lagoon...
portrayed the Gill-man for the majority of the film shot at Universal City, California
Universal City, California
Universal City is a community in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles County, California, that encompasses the 415 acre property of Universal Studios...
. The costume made it impossible for Chapman to sit for the 14 hours of each day that he wore it, and it overheated easily, so he stayed in the backlot's lake, often requesting to be hosed down. He also could not see very well while wearing the headpiece, which caused him to scrape Julie Adams' head against the wall when carrying her in the grotto scenes. Ricou Browning
Ricou Browning
Ricou Browning is an American film director, actor, producer and underwater cinematographer and action specialist.Browning was born in Fort Pierce, Florida and was a physical education major at Florida State University. He grew up to start a career in water shows, moving on to produce shows...
played the Gill-Man in the underwater shots, which were filmed by the second unit
Second unit
In film, the second unit is a team that shoots subsidiary footage for a motion picture. Its work is distinct from that of the first unit, which shoots all scenes involving principal actors...
in Wakulla Springs
Wakulla Springs
Wakulla Springs is located south of Tallahassee, Florida and east of Crawfordville in Wakulla County, Florida at the crossroads of State Road 61 and State Road 267...
, Florida.
Many of the on-top of the water scenes were filmed at Rice Creek near Palatka, Florida.
Novelization
The film was novelizedNovelization
A novelization is a novel that is written based on some other media story form rather than as an original work.Novelizations of films usually add background material not found in the original work to flesh out the story, because novels are generally longer than screenplays...
in 1977, in paperback under the pseudonym of "Carl Dreadstone", as part of a short-lived series of books based on the classic Universal horror films. The book was introduced by Ramsey Campbell, but was written by Walter Harris. The novel offers a completely different Gill-man, who in this version of the story is gigantic, almost as big as the Rita herself, weighing in at 30 tons. It is both coldblooded and warmblooded, is a hermaphrodite
Hermaphrodite
In biology, a hermaphrodite is an organism that has reproductive organs normally associated with both male and female sexes.Many taxonomic groups of animals do not have separate sexes. In these groups, hermaphroditism is a normal condition, enabling a form of sexual reproduction in which both...
, and also possesses a long whip-like tail. The gigantic creature is dubbed "AA", for "Advanced Amphibian", by the expedition team members. After slaying most of the team members, destroying a Sikorsky
Sikorsky Aircraft
The Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation is an American aircraft manufacturer based in Stratford, Connecticut. Its parent company is United Technologies Corporation.-History:...
helicopter, and kidnapping Kay more than once, the creature is killed by the crew of a US Navy torpedo boat
Torpedo boat
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval vessel designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs rammed enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes, and later designs launched self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes. They were created to counter battleships and other large, slow and...
.
The novel also differs greatly with respect to the human characters. Only David Reed and Kay Lawrence remain the same. Mark Williams is a German named "Bruno Gebhardt", and dies not as a result from drowning but by the monster falling on him. Lucas is named "Jose Goncalves Fonseca de Souza" and is a mostly sympathetic character until his suggestion of throwing the wounded and unconscious Reed to the monster makes an enraged Gebhardt/Williams throw him to the beast instead. Dr. Thompson and Dr. Maia both die grisly deaths, whereas in the movie they survive; Maia is eaten by the monster, and Thompson is impaled on a long tree branch flung at him by the creature like a spear (in an apparent nod to a deleted scene from Revenge of the Creature wherein the Gill-man killed a guard in this fashion).
Legacy
The movie has an enduring legacy in both media and the general public. A musical based on the movieCreature from the Black Lagoon: The Musical
Creature From the Black Lagoon: The Musical was a live performance show formerly located at the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park in Los Angeles, California. It debuted on July 1, 2009, replacing Fear Factor LIVE...
opened at Universal Studios Hollywood
Universal Studios Hollywood
Universal Studios Hollywood is a movie studio and theme park in the unincorporated Universal City community of Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is one of the oldest and most famous Hollywood movie studios still in use...
in late June 2009. It has also been widely referenced, in part due to its groundbreaking character, in other media. In fact, many movies featuring monsters put a Gill-man likeness in the background as homage. More directly, the Gill-man appeared in the Robot Chicken
Robot Chicken
Robot Chicken is an American stop motion animated television series created and executive produced by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich along with co-head writers Douglas Goldstein and Tom Root. Green provides many voices for the show...
episode "Shoe", voiced by Seth Green
Seth Green
Seth Benjamin Green is an American actor, comedian, voice actor, and television producer. He is well known for his role as Daniel "Oz" Osbourne in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as Dr. Evil's son Scott in the Austin Powers series of comedy films, Mitch Miller in That '70s Show, and the voice of Chris...
. He tells a guy that he prefers the lagoon to be called the "African-American Lagoon."
The Monster also appears in "We are a Humble Factory", now voiced by Breckin Meyer
Breckin Meyer
-Early life:Meyer was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of Dorothy Ann , a travel agent and former microbiologist, and Christopher William Meyer, a management consultant. As a child of divorced parents, he lived in California, Texas, West Virginia and New Jersey. He has an older brother,...
, where Count Chocula
General Mills monster-themed breakfast cereals
General Mills monster-themed breakfast cereals are five current and formerly distributed breakfast cereal brands in North America. The series includes Count Chocula, Franken Berry, and Boo Berry, and the discontinued Fruit Brute and Fruity Yummy Mummy.-History:In 1971, the first two cereals in the...
, FrankenBerry
General Mills monster-themed breakfast cereals
General Mills monster-themed breakfast cereals are five current and formerly distributed breakfast cereal brands in North America. The series includes Count Chocula, Franken Berry, and Boo Berry, and the discontinued Fruit Brute and Fruity Yummy Mummy.-History:In 1971, the first two cereals in the...
, and BooBerry
General Mills monster-themed breakfast cereals
General Mills monster-themed breakfast cereals are five current and formerly distributed breakfast cereal brands in North America. The series includes Count Chocula, Franken Berry, and Boo Berry, and the discontinued Fruit Brute and Fruity Yummy Mummy.-History:In 1971, the first two cereals in the...
are angrily mentioned by him, as well Fruity Yummy Mummy
General Mills monster-themed breakfast cereals
General Mills monster-themed breakfast cereals are five current and formerly distributed breakfast cereal brands in North America. The series includes Count Chocula, Franken Berry, and Boo Berry, and the discontinued Fruit Brute and Fruity Yummy Mummy.-History:In 1971, the first two cereals in the...
and Fruit Brute
General Mills monster-themed breakfast cereals
General Mills monster-themed breakfast cereals are five current and formerly distributed breakfast cereal brands in North America. The series includes Count Chocula, Franken Berry, and Boo Berry, and the discontinued Fruit Brute and Fruity Yummy Mummy.-History:In 1971, the first two cereals in the...
. The creature decides to make his own cereal called "Creature with the Black Macaroons" because macaroon sounds like lagoon; however, the cereal wasn't successful and when all the cereals were dumped into his lagoon, he says "I should've gone with legumes", as legume also sounds like lagoon. Its likeness was also used for the film The Monster Squad
The Monster Squad
The Monster Squad is a comedy/horror film written by Shane Black and Fred Dekker and directed by Fred Dekker . It was released by Tri-Star Pictures on August 14, 1987. The film features the classic monsters , led by Count Dracula...
. However, due to licensing issues with Universal, the creature is referred to as "Gill-Man."
Ben Chapman introduced the creature in costume with Abbott and Costello
Abbott and Costello
William "Bud" Abbott and Lou Costello performed together as Abbott and Costello, an American comedy duo whose work on stage, radio, film and television made them the most popular comedy team during the 1940s and 1950s...
on live television on an episode of The Colgate Comedy Hour
The Colgate Comedy Hour
The Colgate Comedy Hour is an American comedy-musical variety series that aired live on the NBC network from 1950 to 1955. The show stars many notable comedians and entertainers of the era, including Eddie Cantor, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Fred Allen, Donald O'Connor, Bud Abbott and Lou...
. Even earlier, in The Seven Year Itch
The Seven Year Itch
The Seven Year Itch is a 1955 American film based on a three-act play with the same name by George Axelrod. The film was co-written and directed by Billy Wilder, and starred Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell, reprising his Broadway role...
, the film is referenced when Tom Ewell
Tom Ewell
Tom Ewell was an American actor.-Early life and career:Born Samuel Yewell Tompkins in Owensboro, Kentucky, where his family expected him to follow in their footsteps as lawyers or whiskey and tobacco dealers....
and Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
come out of a theatre showing Creature from the Black Lagoon. Monroe expresses some sympathy for the creature, saying that it was not really bad and "just wanted to be loved". The creature plays a brief cameo emerging from Lake Springfield in the Simpsons animated TV series—see the 10th episode of Season 16.
Creature from the Black Lagoon was later made into a pinball
Pinball
Pinball is a type of arcade game, usually coin-operated, where a player attempts to score points by manipulating one or more metal balls on a playfield inside a glass-covered case called a pinball machine. The primary objective of the game is to score as many points as possible...
game, designed by John Trudeau (AKA "Dr. Flash"), and released in 1992 by Midway
Midway Games
Midway Games, Inc. is an American company that was formerly a major video game publisher. Following a bankruptcy filing in 2009, it is no longer active and is in the process of liquidating all of its assets. Midway's titles included Mortal Kombat, Ms.Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, Tron, Rampage, the...
(under the Bally brand name). This game has a retro 1950s drive-in theme. It also features such 50s classic songs like Rock Around the Clock, Get a Job, and Summertime Blues. Completing side missions in the pinball game causes the screen to display "Universal Presents... Creature from the Black Lagoon", and then requires the player to chase after the monster just like in the film. The game sold 7,841 units.
A series of children's books, written by Mike Thaler and Jared Lee, paradigm the film. Beginning with The Teacher From the Black Lagoon, it continued with The Principal..., The Gym Teacher... and several others.
The Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
character Triton
Triton (comics)
Triton is a fictional merman published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared in Fantastic Four #45 , and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.-Fictional character biography:...
of the Inhumans
Inhumans
The Inhumans are a fictional race of superhumans, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. This race appears in various comic book series published by Marvel Comics and exists in that company's shared universe, known as the Marvel Universe....
is a green water breathing character resembling the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
The DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
character Aquaman
Aquaman
Aquaman is a fictional superhero who appears in comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger, the character debuted in More Fun Comics #73 . Initially a backup feature in DC's anthology titles, Aquaman later starred in several volumes of a solo title...
donned a suit of armor resembling the Creature in the 2005–07 miniseries Justice
Justice
Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics; justice is the act of being just and/or fair.-Concept of justice:...
.
In The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Nightmare Before Christmas, often promoted as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, is a 1993 stop motion musical fantasy film directed by Henry Selick and produced/co-written by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, a being from "Halloween Town" who opens a portal to...
, there is a character in Halloween Town who is clearly meant to be the Creature from the Black Lagoon. In one song, it ponders the contents of Jack's present: "Perhaps it's the head that I found in the lake".
The film has been immortalized in paleontology
Paleontology
Paleontology "old, ancient", ὄν, ὀντ- "being, creature", and λόγος "speech, thought") is the study of prehistoric life. It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments...
circles. When Jenny Clack
Jennifer A. Clack
Jennifer Alice Clack, FRS, is an English paleontologist, an expert in the field of evolutionary biology. She studies the "fish to tetrapod" transition— the origin, evolutionary development and radiation of early tetrapods and their relatives among the lobe-finned fishes...
of the University of Cambridge discovered a fossil amphibian in what was once a fetid swamp, she named it Eucritta
Eucritta
Eucritta melanolimnetes is an extinct tetrapod from the Carboniferous period of Scotland. Its name is a homage to the 1954 sci-fi/horror movie Creature from the Black Lagoon....
melanolimnetes, which is Greek for "the creature from the black lagoon."
Though technically a merman, the character Rikuo in the Darkstalkers game series and his race bear a striking resemblance to the Gill-Man, and perhaps more so than any character in the game, remain very true to the source character, with Rikuo being from an area in Brazil near the Amazon. Even the character's name is a reference to one of the actors who played the creature.
Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13
Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13
Frankenstein Drag Queens from Planet 13 are a horror punk band from North Carolina. The band was formed in 1996 by Wednesday 13, who recruited friends and former Maniac Spider Trash bandmates Seaweed and Sicko Zero...
a band from North Carolina who were fronted by now Murderdolls
Murderdolls
Murderdolls is an American horror punk supergroup, founded during 2002 in Hollywood, California. The band line-up consists of core members Wednesday 13 and Joey Jordison. Former members include Ben Graves, Acey Slade, Eric Griffin & Tripp Eisen....
lead singer and solo artist Wednesday 13
Wednesday 13
Joseph Poole, better known as Wednesday 13 , is a rock musician from Charlotte, North Carolina. He is most famous for his role as the frontman of the Murderdolls...
also did a song about the creature naming it Creature From The Black Lagoon.
The heavy metal band Iced Earth
Iced Earth
Iced Earth is an American heavy metal band from Tampa, Florida. Originally formed under the name "Purgatory" in 1984, Iced Earth has released a total of ten studio albums, one live album, three EP's, two compilations and boxsets...
also did a song about the creature called Dragon's Child on the Horror Show
Horror Show (album)
Horror Show is the debut EP by Springfield, IL rock band The Graduate. The album was self-produced and released independently in May 2006. After the CD's release, The Graduate were signed to Icon MES Records.- Track listing :# "Sit & Sink" - 3:34...
album.
Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes: The Animated Series parodied the movie in "The Tomato From The Black Lagoon", where the gang looks for a missing tomato link in the San Zucchini Botanical Gardens and are stalked by an amphibious tomato who goes after Tara, who is also part tomato.
Abe Sapien
Abe Sapien
Abraham "Abe" Sapien is a fictional character in the comic book series Hellboy, created by Mike Mignola. He takes his name from "Icthyo sapiens," the fanciful species designation chosen for him by his colleagues in the 19th-century Oannes Club, and from Abraham Lincoln, on whose assassination date...
of Hellboy
Hellboy
Hellboy is a comic book superhero created by writer-artist Mike Mignola. The character first appeared in San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2 , and has since appeared in various eponymous miniseries, one-shots and intercompany crossovers...
fame was originally inspired by the film and its titular creature.
Funko released in October 2010 a 7-inch button eyed cuddly monster.
Remake
In 1982, John LandisJohn Landis
John David Landis is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, and producer. He is known for his comedies, his horror films, and his music videos with singer Michael Jackson.-Early life and career:...
was keen on getting Arnold to direct a remake of the film, and Nigel Kneale
Nigel Kneale
Nigel Kneale was a British screenwriter from the Isle of Man. Active in television, film, radio drama and prose fiction, he wrote professionally for over fifty years, was a winner of the Somerset Maugham Award and was twice nominated for the British Film Award for Best Screenplay...
was commissioned to write the screenplay. Kneale completed the script, which involved a pair of creatures, one destructive and the other calm and sensitive, being persecuted by the US Navy. A decision to make the film in 3-D led to the remake being canceled by producers at Universal, both for budgetary concerns and to avoid a clash with Jaws 3-D
Jaws 3-D
Jaws 3-D is a 1983 thriller film directed by Joe Alves and starring Dennis Quaid, Bess Armstrong, Lea Thompson and Louis Gossett, Jr...
. In July 1992, John Carpenter
John Carpenter
John Howard Carpenter is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.- Early life :Carpenter was born...
was developing the remake at Universal. Herschel Weingrod
Herschel Weingrod
Herschel Alan Weingrod is an American screenwriter. He has written and co-written a number of Hollywood blockbusters including Twins, 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger film Kindergarten Cop with fellow writer Murray Salem and the 1996 movie Space Jam...
and Timothy Harris wrote a new script, and Universal offered Peter Jackson
Peter Jackson
Sir Peter Robert Jackson, KNZM is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, known for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , adapted from the novel by J. R. R...
the director's position in 1995, but he choose to work on King Kong
King Kong (2005 film)
King Kong is a 2005 fantasy adventure film directed by Peter Jackson. It is a remake of the 1933 film of the same name and stars Naomi Watts, Jack Black and Adrien Brody. Andy Serkis, through performance capture, portrays Kong....
instead. In February 1996, Ivan Reitman
Ivan Reitman
Ivan Reitman, OC is a Canadian film producer and director. He is known for the comedies he has directed and produced, especially in the 1980s and 1990s.He is the owner of The Montecito Picture Company, founded in 2000.-Early life:...
was planning to direct the remake, but the outing never materialized. With the financial success of The Mummy
The Mummy (1999 film)
The Mummy is a 1999 American adventure film written and directed by Stephen Sommers and starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah and Kevin J. O'Connor, with Arnold Vosloo in the title role as the reanimated mummy. The film features substantial dialogue in ancient Egyptian language, spoken...
remake in May 1999, development of theCreature from the Black Lagoon remake was revived.
In December 2001, following the success of The Mummy
The Mummy (1999 film)
The Mummy is a 1999 American adventure film written and directed by Stephen Sommers and starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah and Kevin J. O'Connor, with Arnold Vosloo in the title role as the reanimated mummy. The film features substantial dialogue in ancient Egyptian language, spoken...
and The Mummy Returns
The Mummy Returns
The Mummy Returns is a 2001 American adventure film written and directed by Stephen Sommers, starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosloo, Oded Fehr, Patricia Velásquez and Freddie Boath. The film is a sequel to the 1999 film The Mummy...
, Gary Ross
Gary Ross
Gary Ross is an American writer, director, and actor. He is best known for directing Pleasantville and Seabiscuit, both of which featured Tobey Maguire in the lead role...
signed on to write and produce the remake with his father, Arthur A. Ross, one of the original's writers. He told The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
, "The story my father wrote embodies the clash between primitive men and civilized men, and that obviously makes it a fertile area for re-examination." In August 2002, Guillermo del Toro
Guillermo del Toro
Guillermo del Toro is a Mexican director, producer, screenwriter, novelist and designer. He is mostly known for his acclaimed films, Blade II, Pan's Labyrinth and the Hellboy film franchise. He is a frequent collaborator with Ron Perlman, Federico Luppi and Doug Jones...
, a fan of the original was attached as director. Because of his commitments to numerous other projects, Universal was forced to go without del Toro as director, and hired Tedi Sarafian
Tedi Sarafian
Tedi Sarafian is an Armenian-American Screenwriter. He is perhaps most known for collaborating on the story development for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines . He is the on of Richard C. Sarafian, and the brother of Richard Sarafian Jr...
(credited on Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, commonly abbreviated as T3, is a 2003 science fiction action film directed by Jonathan Mostow and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes and Kristanna Loken...
) to write a script in March 2003.
In October 2005, Breck Eisner
Breck Eisner
Michael "Breck" Eisner is an American television and film director.-Early life:Eisner was born Michael Eisner in California, the son of Jane Breckenridge, a business advisor and computer programmer, and Michael Eisner, the former Walt Disney Company chief executive...
signed on as director. "As a kid, I remember loving Jack Arnold's original version of this film", he explained. "What I really want to do is update an iconic image from the '50s and bring in more of the sci-fi sensibility of Alien
Alien (film)
Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm and Yaphet Kotto. The film's title refers to its primary antagonist: a highly aggressive extraterrestrial creature which...
or John Carpenter
John Carpenter
John Howard Carpenter is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.- Early life :Carpenter was born...
's The Thing." Ross said in March 2007 the Gill-man's origin would be reinvented, with him being the result of a pharmaceutical corporation polluting
Pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...
the Amazon. "It's about the rainforest
Rainforest
Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...
being exploited for profit", he said.
The film was delayed by the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike, and Eisner put The Crazies
The Crazies (2010 film)
The Crazies is a 2010 American horror film directed by Breck Eisner. Written by Scott Kosar and Ray Wright, the film is a remake of the 1973 film of the same name by George A. Romero, who is also the executive producer and co-writer of the remake....
on his priority. Once he finishes filming that, he will begin filming Creature from the Black Lagoon in Manaus
Manaus
Manaus is a city in Brazil, the capital of the state of Amazonas. It is situated at the confluence of the Negro and Solimões rivers. It is the most populous city of Amazonas, according to the statistics of Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, and is a popular ecotourist destination....
, Brazil and on the Amazon River
Amazon River
The Amazon of South America is the second longest river in the world and by far the largest by waterflow with an average discharge greater than the next seven largest rivers combined...
in Peru. Eisner was inspired to shoot on location by Fitzcarraldo
Fitzcarraldo
Fitzcarraldo is a 1982 film written and directed by Werner Herzog and starring Klaus Kinski as the title character. It portrays would-be rubber baron Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, an Irishman known as Fitzcarraldo in Peru, who has to pull a steamship over a steep hill in order to access a rich rubber...
, and the boat set has been built. Eisner continued to rewrite the script, which will be a summer blockbuster full of "action and excitement, but [still] scary". Eisner spent six months designing the new incarnation of the Gill-man with Mark McCreery (Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park (film)
Jurassic Park is a 1993 American science fiction adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Michael Crichton. It stars Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Martin Ferrero, and Bob Peck...
, and Davy Jones
Davy Jones (Pirates of the Caribbean)
Davy Jones is a fictional character and antagonist in the Pirates of the Caribbean series. Davy Jones is the captain of the Flying Dutchman , roaming the seas in search of souls to serve upon his vessel for a century...
' designer). The director said the design was "very faithful to the original, but updated", and that the Gill-man will still be sympathetic.
In 2009 it was reported that Carl Erik Rinsch might direct a 2010 remake that would be produced by Marc Abraham
Marc Abraham
Marc Abraham is an American film producer, and president of Strike Entertainment, a production company he launched in early 2002 with a multi-year, first look arrangement with Universal Pictures.-Biography:...
, Eric Newman and Gary Ross
Gary Ross
Gary Ross is an American writer, director, and actor. He is best known for directing Pleasantville and Seabiscuit, both of which featured Tobey Maguire in the lead role...
, however, a project featuring this ensemble had been abandoned by 2011.
External links
- The Reel Gill-man – Official site of Ben Chapman, who played the Gill-man