Academy Award® winners Russell Crowe & Javier Bardem, superstar Tom Cruise, blockbuster icon Johnny Depp & Sofia Boutella (@ Universal Pictures)

Welcome to a new world of gods and monsters.

Witness the beginning of a Dark Universe.

Universal Pictures announced today, May 22, which its series of films reviving the studio’s classic monster characters for a new generation will be known as DARK UNIVERSE. The motion logo for the new initiative features a musical theme composed by Danny Elfman and will debut in theaters preceding The Mummy, which will be released on June 9.  The announcement includes details of the enterprise relaunching Universal’s iconic characters  into modern cinema, as well as confirmations of superstar cast and that Academy Award^® winner Bill Condon will direct Bride of Frankenstein.

DARK UNIVERSE was begun by core creatives Alex Kurtzman, who also serves as director and producer of The Mummy, the inaugural film in the new classic monster series, and The Mummy producer Chris Morgan, who recently saw The Fate of the Furious, the sixth film he wrote for the Fast & Furious franchise, claim the biggest opening in history at the global box office when it opened on April 14.  Also joining the enterprise to inspire and entertain a new generation are such visionary talents as Oscar winner^® Christopher McQuarrie and David Koepp.

From his first score on Tim Burton’s Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and his iconic theme for The Simpsons—not to mention his collaborations with filmmakers including Ang Lee, David O. Russell, Sam Raimi, Rob Marshall, Guillermo del Toro, Joss Whedon and Peter Jackson—four-time Academy Award^® nominee Danny Elfman’s inimitable compositions have vaulted him into one of the most versatile and accomplished composers in history.

In another exciting development, Oscar^® winner Bill Condon will follow his worldwide smash Beauty and the Beast, one of this year’s biggest hits—which crossed $1 billion at the global box office and became the most successful musical of all time—by directing Bride of Frankenstein, from a screenplay by Koepp.  The next film from Dark Universe, Bride of Frankenstein will be released on Thursday, February 14, 2019.

In a related move, Universal announced that it will not release a Dark Universe film as previously planned for April 13, 2018, and that Bride will instead be the next chapter in the unspooling series of movies following this year’s The Mummy.  The actress chosen to play the lead role in Condon’s version of this timeless story will be announced soon.

DARK UNIVERSE films will be distinguished by performances from some of the most talented and popular global superstars stepping into iconic roles, as well as electric new talents whose careers are starting to break through. While previously announced, the stars of both imminent and future Dark Universe projects are gathered for the first time in the attached photo: The Invisible Man and Frankenstein’s Monster will be played by, respectively, blockbuster icon Johnny Depp and Academy Award^® winner Javier Bardem, who appear together later this summer in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.  Those actors join superstar Tom Cruise as soldier of fortune Nick Morton and Oscar^® winner Russell Crowe as Dr. Henry Jekyll, who lead the all-star cast of The Mummy, along with Sofia Boutella, the actress who embodies the title role in that film.

At its organizing principle, Dark Universe films are connected by a mysterious multi-national organization known as Prodigium.  Led by the enigmatic and brilliant Dr. Henry Jekyll, Prodigium’s mission is to track, study and—when necessary—destroy evil embodied in the form of monsters in our world.  Working outside the aegis of any government, and with practices concealed by millennia of secrecy, Prodigium protects the public from knowledge of the evil that exists just beyond the thin membrane of civilized society…and will go to any length to contain it.  To learn more about DARK UNIVERSE and Prodigium, visit www.DarkUniverse.com and www.WelcometoProdigium.com.