The Biology of Creature From The Black Lagoon

Writer/director Gary Ross has been talking about his yet-to-be-greenlit plans for remaking the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Gary Ross's father, Arthur Ross, was one of the writers of the original 1954 B-movie. According to Gary, his father based the original story at least in part on real biology. He'd like the remake to have an even better foundation in real science:

We found some scientific underpinnings for it, which my dad actually felt in the original," Ross said in a group interview in Santa Monica, Calif., where he was promoting The Tale of Despereaux. "In fact, he had based it on a lungfish that was found around that time. So a lot of that was his [input] and kind of the conflict between science and [nature]."

With such research, Ross also said that the tone will be straight, not campy. "I don't think we're going to wink at the audience and make it silly in any sort of way," he said. "I think we're going to take it seriously. We're going to treat it with a certain amount of dignity. We're not approaching this in a retro, campy kind of way. It's set in present day. There are reasonable scientific underpinnings for it. It should really be a really interesting journey into the jungle, both for the characters and for the audience. It's not a reference to what the original is. It's not referential that way. We take it sort of seriously."

It sounds to me like he's planning to take all the fun out of it. But maybe a serious sci-fi Creature reboot will be entertaining in its own way.

Lungfish are a type of freshwater fish found in Africa, Australia and South America that are able to survive the dry season by burrowing into mud and substantially slowing their metabolism. Lungfish also have a lung, although it is only used for breathing when the animal is stressed or needs extra oxygen. They are not known to carry off women, scantily clad or otherwise.

Here's the original trailer:

Only time will tell if the remake is as entertaining . . .

Tags:Creature From The Black Lagoon, biology