HG Wells’s The Island of Dr Moreau is a story that’s been made three times as a movie. In Moreau, a mad doctor creates a cross between humans and animals, and the first big screen incarnation, Island of Lost Souls, was a big movie for Universal during the ‘30’s monster era.
The Island of Doctor Moreau was then remade in 1977 to mediocre results, and again in 1996 to dreadful results. Now, big surprise, The Island of Doctor Moreau is slated to be remade yet again, this time at Warner Brothers.
As Deadline and Cinema Blend report, this time it’s being set up through Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company, Appian Way, who are also doing the Twilight Zone movie. Onboard for the screenplay is Brian McGreevy, who wrote the novel Hemlock Grove, and Lee Shipman. (Both writers also worked on the cable show adaptation of Grove, which was not well received.)
Again, the question is should this story be remade again? It’s certainly familiar enough that you’ll pretty much know the premise before you see it, and it will be a great opportunity for a top notch FX artist to create some amazing creatures, but is that enough?
Cinema Blend tells us this one will have a message about the environment, but again, is that enough to remake it a third time? (In horror stories like Moreau and Creature From the Black Lagoon, the message of what happens when you fool with mother nature’s pretty clear anyways.) We’ll see if this one even makes the finish line, and we hope it can indeed bring something different to the table, or be at least as good as the first movie.
