It sure can feel like every monster that ever graced the screen is being ghoulishly resurrected for contemporary audiences who were cursed to not be alive when the Ghoulies were engaged in their reign of toilet-haunting terror. (Note to self: Pitch gritty Ghoulies reboot.) Heck, that awful Van Helsing movie from a while back essentially pitted all famous CGI monsters against Hugh Jackman in a battle that wounded only the souls and simple, monster-loving inner children of its audience. 

So I know what you’re probably thinking now: When is the Creature From The Black Lagoon finally going to get some love? Or are studios going to continue to discriminate against him because he comes from the Black Lagoon, and not some tonier residence? 

Well, Creature From The Black Lagoon fans can rejoice, because it looks like everyone’s sixth or seventh favorite sorta-classic monster is due for another big-screen adventure. Collider is reporting that Scarlett Johansson is in talks to play the role of Kay Lawrence, a scientist on an expedition who ends up becoming the unfortunate object of desire for the titular gill-man. 

The article makes it clear that the project has been in on-and-off production mode more or less since the time its ostensible new star was born, with earlier efforts dating back to the early 1980s, when a then-powerful John Landis tried to get original director Jack Arnold back in the saddle for a remake. John Carpenter also reportedly had a go at it, as did Gary Ross and Breck Eisner. 

But none of them quite caught fire; the extraordinary heat characterizing Johannson’s career right now—reflected on one side by her daring performances in arthouse masterpieces like Her and Under The Skin, and on the other side by her blockbuster turns in popcorn fare like Lucy and the Marvel movies—could be the catalyst that finally gets this remake made (or remade, as it were).

As previously reported, this is hardly the only monster-themed project Universal has in development. Alex Kurtzman’s The Mummy is out next year, and a movie called Untitled Universal Monster Franchise Film is due in theaters in April of 2017. Collider wonders whether this could be Creature From The Black Lagoon; I think it will conceivably feature all the beloved monsters from the Universal series of films, just like Van Helsing. Not unlike technology, the monster biz truly is cyclical. 

There is no director onboard yet, but Ross is reportedly still going to produce from a script he co-wrote with Jeff Blitz, Tedi Sarafian, and Paul Schering.