Universal Pictures had big plans for Van Helsing. Released in the summer of 2004, the film starred Hugh Jackman as the vampire hunter from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, here reimagined as a younger action-adventurer in a 19th-century mash-up of Indiana Jones and Jame Bond films. After a successful remake the mummy for Universal Pictures with Brendan Fraser, Stephen Sommers was brought on board to revive Dracula, Frankenstein and The Wolfman. The hope was to not only reintroduce these classic monsters to a new generation of viewers, but also to create a new franchise.
Despite an extensive marketing campaign, Van Helsing was a box-office disappointment grossing $120 million at the domestic box office against a budget of $170 million. Although the worldwide total was $300 million, it was not seen as enough to justify Universal Pictures’ long-term plans and the studio quickly canceled plans for a franchise. Still, Universal Pictures had a lot of plans in development, and this is a look at what could have been.
Van Helsing film
The first part of the Van Helsing franchise was, of course, the movie itself. Universal Pictures really wanted to reinvent their iconic movie monsters and replicate the formula that had worked for both the mummy and The mummy returns. This was attempted not only by attracting Stephen Sommers as director, but also with the release date of May 7, 2004, six years after the date on which the mummy opened in 1999.
the mummy took the classic monster in an action-adventure show, so it made sense to do the same with Van Helsing. While the mummy Inspired by Indiana Jones, Van Helsing drew heavily from James Bond films. Universal Pictures was probably hoping to capitalize on the lack of James Bond movies like Die another day was released two years earlier and development on what would become Casino royale was still going on.
Van Helsing opened at number one in the opening weekend with $51 million, but lost the spot on the second weekend to Troy. It then faced stiff competition from other summer films such as Shrek 2, The day after tomorrow, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkabanand Spider Man 2. Van Helsing was out of the top five by Memorial Day weekend, and out of the top 10 after just six weeks of its release.
Van Helsing: The London Assignment
As was the case with many big budget action movies Van Helsing got a huge marketing push, including a follow-up video game and a novel. Universal also took a chance and wanted to expand the franchise with an animated prequel film. Van Helsing: The London Assignment acts as a prequel to the film, showing Van Helsing’s first meeting with Mr. Hyde referenced in the film. The film was released on video four days after it opened in theaters and hit store shelves on May 11, 2004.
This is one of two Universal Pictures movies to release an animated movie that summer to build anticipation of a new movie, the other being The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury that would bridge the gap between pitch black and The Chronicles of Riddick. While it’s unlikely these were done in an attempt to launch an animated series like the mummy was an attempt by Universal Pictures to Van Helsing fire up as a multimedia component with several tie-ins.
Van Helsing Sequel
Universal Pictures was so confident that Van Helsing became a hit at the box office, they began developing a sequel before the first film opened. They even paid to keep the original Transylvania sets, thinking they should come back for that and other projects. However, the film’s poor box office ultimately resulted in the sequel being dropped.
Nothing has ever been said about what the plans are? Van Helsing 2 goods. Since they had already used Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Wolfman, they had to use other monsters to draw the audience in. The Mummy already had its own franchise, so that was out of the question. There are rumors that it may have included the creature from the Black Lagoon, while The Invisible Man and The Bride of Frankenstein were also available for use. A one-off comic published by Dark Horse titled Van Helsing: From under the Rue Morge showed Van Helsing going up against Doctor Moreau in what could have been an exciting sequel.
Transylvania television series
While it’s common now to closely link TV shows and movies, as is the case with the MCU series on Disney+, back in 2004 it was a bold idea and not really something a studio did. Universal Pictures might have broken new ground if their Van Helsing plans have gone ahead. In April 2004, a month earlier Van Helsing opened in theaters, they announced they were going to green-light a television series titled Transylvania.
The plan was to use the set from the original film, and Universal Studios paid to maintain the structures so they could return there to film there, and the series was set to premiere on NBC in the fall of 2004. Van Helsing’s release, the studio canceled plans for the TV series.
Universal Theme Park Plans
Equivalent to the mummyUniversal wanted to bring Van Helsing in their theme parks. Revenge of the mummy opened at Universal Theme Parks in Summer 2004 of the same year Van Helsing was released, probably in hopes of clearing the way for Van Helsing– themed attractions.
The first was Van Helsing: Fortress Dracula, a walk-through experience where guests would encounter the monsters from the film. It opened at Universal Studios Hollywood on May 7, 2004, along with the film’s release. While the film was a box office disappointment and quickly faded, Universal kept the attraction in the park a bit likely in hopes it would generate an impassioned fan base, akin to how the box office flops. water world endured thanks to the stunt show at Universal Studios Hollywood. It managed to last for two years, but finally closed on November 4, 2006, to be replaced by Universal’s House of Horrors and later The living Dead.
Van Helsing’s legacy
Despite being a disappointment at the box office and Universal Pictures canceling the many Van Helsing spin-off and follow-up projects, the film left behind some unexpected effects. The first was that Universal Pictures, in promoting the film, sold the collections of Dracula, Frankensteinand The Wolfman on DVD. The DVD sets were such a hit, the studio quickly followed up with collections for the mummy, The Invisible Manand The Creature from the Black Lagoon. These DVDs (and Van Helsing himself) probably introduced an entire generation of kids to the classic Universal Monsters.
Universal Pictures tried to reboot their classic monsters with The Dark Universe, and a long development project they’ve worked on for years was a reboot of Van Helsing that at some point Tom Cruise was going to play the lead role before moving on to the mummy. In 2020, it was reported that the Van Helsing reboot was still planned with James W producing and overlord director Julius Avery at the helm.
Maybe the only one worth it Van Helsing project is the completely unrelated Syfy original series (now on Netflix) Van Helsing, created by the great Neil LaBute. That weird epic had a female Van Helsing and a completely different post-apocalyptic world, and ran for five wonderfully campy seasons.
Despite Van Helsing‘s franchise plans are canceled, there is clearly value in the character, and perhaps the franchise will soon receive the spotlight that the studio had planned for it in 2004.