‘Shadow and Bone’ Creator Eric Heisserer on Why Universal’s Original Dark Universe Plan Bombed

The writing was on the walls in 2017 when “The Mummy,” the patient zero of Universal’s planned Dark Universe mega-franchise, bombed at the box office.

With projected losses of nearly $100 million for Universal Pictures, the film failed to launch what was supposed to be a sprawling Marvel Cinematic Universe analog for the studio.

While the Dark Universe is being refashioned on a smaller scale (starting with films like last year’s sleeper hit “The Invisible Man”), the original plan is no more.

In a recent interview with The Playlist, Eric Heisserer, the creator of “Shadow and Bone” and the screenwriter of “Arrival,” talked about his experience dipping into the waters of the Dark Universe, and why it fell apart.“It was a very strange experience,” he said.

“There was certainly a big brain trust of writers around the table.

You had a lot of voices and none of them could agree on much.

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