The Big Picture

Leah McKendrick’s next project for Universal will be a horrifying monster movie, a genre she loves and is passionate about.
Universal has a long history of iconic horror hits, creating the concept of a “cinematic universe” with monster rallies in the past.
Details on McKendrick’s new film are under wraps, but fans can expect a unique spin on the mythical creature genre. Stay tuned for updates.

Fresh off her feature directorial debut Scrambled, Leah McKendrick’s next project will be horrifying. She’s signed on to write and direct a new monster movie for Universal, part of the studio’s long and storied history of horror. Deadline reports that James Wan’s Atomic Monster will produce the project.

Details are being kept under wraps for now, but the film will center around a mythical creature. The film won’t be McKendrick’s first foray into horror – she’s just completed the script for a belated follow-up to the 1997 teen slasher I Know What You Did Last Summer. She spoke of her love of horror with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff earlier this year: “I always have to keep knocking on that door, like ‘I love horror films. I wanna do horror films!’ Everybody’s like, ‘That’s so awesome. Here’s a rom-com to write. That’s amazing. Go write this cute rom-com for teenagers.’ And I’m like, ‘No, I wanna cut heads off. I wanna have blood all over the walls!'” McKendrick also previously directed the short film Pamela & Ivy, taking an unauthorized look at the Batman villain, which premiered exclusively on Collider.

What Other Horror Movies Have Been Produced by Universal?

Long before Hammer, Blumhouse, or A24, Universal was the studio audiences associated with horror. The studio burst into the sound era of the 1930s with a string of iconic horror hits, including Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy, and The Wolf Man. The studio then mixed and mashed the monsters into the movies’ first “cinematic universe”, decades before the concept existed, in so-called “monster rallies” like House of Dracula and Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. The studio’s horror output petered out over the intervening decades, although the 1950s produced the classic Creature from the Black Lagoon. They have made various attempts to recapture that Universal Horror magic in recent years as other cinematic universes burned up the box office; most infamously, the stillborn Dark Universe face-planted after the disappointing financial and critical returns of 2017’s The Mummy. They have hd more success recently with a series of disconnected films reinterpreting their classic horror films, including 2020’s The Invisible Man and 2024’s Abigail (a loose remake of Dracula’s Daughter).

Wan will produce the film; Michael Clear and Judson Scott will executive produce. Alayna Glasthal is overseeing the project for Atomic Monster.

Leah McKendrick’s Universal monster movie is in development, and has not yet announced a title, casting, or release date. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.