Universal Recruiting Jolie And Tatum For DARK UNIVERSE

It's got its defenders (and there were certainly moments when I was among them), but Universal's latest reboot of The Mummy was pretty comprehensively derided by critics and shunned by cinemagoers.

That's not stopping Universal from continuing its Dark Universe project, though, according to a new report from THR. The studio is apparently doubling down on its star-driven approach to the shared universe series, but will take its foot off the release-schedule gas a little, so that the scripts can undergo some much-needed development.

Among the new stars being targeted for the series: Angelina Jolie, who's being offered the title role in Bill Condon's Bride of Frankenstein, and Channing Tatum, who the studio hopes will star in a rebooted Van Helsing. They're both big names, and given that Universal apparently credits Tom Cruise with the little business The Mummy actually managed to drum up, they'll likely find money trucks backed up to their porches in short order.

Jolie and Tatum would join Russell Crowe as Dr. Jekyll, Javier Bardem as Frankenstein's Monster, Cruise as whatever he ended up as at the end of The Mummy, and Johnny Depp's hat collection as the Invisible Man.

The next film in the series is Bride of Frankenstein, frankly the only one of these that stands a chance of being any good. It comes out on Valentine's Day, 2019. Get ready for a very wink-wink-nudge-nudge marketing campaign.