TLDR – We all know that the Dark Universe flopped. What this podcast presupposes is: What if it didn’t?

Here’s the full pitch: For this podcast, we are in an alternate universe. A MUCH DARKER UNIVERSE! After the smash runaway success of Dracula Untold, the Dark Universe Cinematic Universe (The DUCU) has taken the world by storm. The MCU is trodden into dust as phase 2 becomes flop after flop and the actors and actresses run away from the project in droves. Universal starts buying properties left and right. Star Wars, Star Trek, you name it, it’s now a Universal property. Other studios are begging Universal to feature their characters in the DUCU. Everything that the MCU is in this reality well, that’s the DUCU here. But times a thousand. And that’s where this podcast is set.

What I want this to feel like is a generic fawning press junket style podcast where the host (me) showers praise and glowing remarks on the writers, stars, directors etc. of the DUCU. That’s you. Now, that doesn’t mean you should pretend to be Tom Cruise. But maybe you are his stuntman and you want to talk about how great he was on the Set of Mummy 3: The Return of the Dark Eye. Or maybe you were the second unit director on this summer’s smash crossover Wolfman Vs The Creature. I might try to pry some spoilers out of you, be careful!

How is this gonna work? Each week in the podcast thread, we are going to decide on a couple of things. First, what monster or monsters are we working with. Second, who it stars, who directs etc. The fake IMDB page, basically. Third, a rough plot outline. From there, I’m going to ask for 2 or 3 volunteers to take on the role of someone who worked on the film in some capacity. Note that even if you don’t want to speak on the podcast, there’s plenty of room for you to get Dad’s Casa level creative on ideas for these movies. Maybe Universal bought the rights to the Xenomorphs and Frankenstein has to fight them on the International Space Station. I dunno, it’s your ideas. Obviously, when it comes to the recording, we are gonna wanna script a lot of the big moments and interaction moments but we’ve all heard enough of these podcasts to fake the funk. You tell me everyone was a joy to work with and I say the is the best movie ever. But if you wanna improv, let’s do this!

I want this to really be a whole community thing. You wanna be the continuity expert who listens to the podcasts and makes sure we get the order of the movies right? Go for it. Got some cool costume sketches you wanna do? Hell yes. However you wanna be involved in this deeply silly idea I’d be more than happy to accept your help.

Now let’s all put our brains together and make the cinematic universe that a giant billion-dollar studio couldn’t!

Let’s just start spitballing some things for right now then we can start working on more concrete stuff. Film names, stars involved, directors who were part of the DUCU, best fight scenes, “couldn’t believe it” plot twists, whatcha got?

In a couple weeks, I will put up a thread for a first episode which I want to focus around sort of an “Endgame” level film. 3 or 4 guests talking about how this is the big breaking point for the DUCU and how nothing is gonna be the same after this huge blockbuster event. After that, my friends, we are gonna get real weird with it.