Director Guillermo del Toro is currently developing a new film adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein for Netflix. This has been a long-time passion project of his, and he’s finally getting the opportunity to tell his vision of this iconic story.
The filmmaker has added a new cast member to the film, and according to Collider, he has brought actor Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds, Alita: Battle Angel) on board. They say that Del Toro confirmed the casting news at the 10th-anniversary screening of Pacific Rim, where the filmmaker told audiences:
“I’m doing Frankenstein. We’re working on it. We start shooting in February, and it’s a movie I have been wanting to do for 50 years since I saw the first Frankenstein. I had an epiphany, and it’s basically a movie that required a lot of growth and a lot of tools that I couldn’t have done 10 years ago. Now I’m brave or crazy enough or something, and we’re gonna tackle it.”
He then proceeded to name the cast members, saying: “It’s Oscar Isaac, Andrew Garfield, Christoph Waltz, and Mia Goth, and we’re working on it.”
It’s also reported that the director will reunite with renowned composer and frequent collaborator Alexandre Desplat for the score and also produce with another usual partner of his, Gary Ungar.
The film’s producer, J. Miles Dale, previously talked about the film and offered some additional insight into it. According to him, Del Toro is building his own monster universe. He explains:
“At one time, he was going to do the Monster Universe with Universal — Frankenstein’s Bride, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Invisible Man, The Wolf Man — and he didn’t. We feel like Shape of Water was kind of a version of a creature. So now, here he is doing his own Monster Universe.”
Dale went on to explain that it’s going to be a “deeply emotional” movie:
“In the last couple of films, certainly with Nightmare Alley and then with Pinocchio, we’ve dealt with the whole father-son relationship. And Guillermo and I both lost our fathers in the last few years. When you have a strong father figure, it’s a big part of our lives. This version of Frankenstein very much goes down that thematic road. So, I feel like this is the third film in Guillermo’s father trilogy. That’s exciting, and when you read the script, it’s very emotional and, of course, very iconic.”
We’re all very familiar with Mary Shelley’s classic horror story, and it’s going to be really cool and interesting to see what Del Toro’s take on it will be. There’s no word on the characters that the actors will play, but I hope that Doug Jones ends up in the role of The Monster! When describing what his version of the classic horror character would have looked like, Jones said:
“[M]y first thought is that I’m not the big, broad, big-boned lumbering Frankenstein that you have in mind. But it was told to me, Guillermo is a big fan of Bernie Wrightson, and a friend of Bernie Wrightson, and Bernie had illustrated a version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and all of the images of Frankenstein’s monster in that, that’s what he was going to pattern my look after. Which was more emaciated, little skinnier, little more drawn, little more pathetic looking. And yet, had an unnatural physical prowess, an unnatural athleticism to him. He was sewn together with spare parts of a couple different bodies. Very bony face, long, stringy, drawn hair.”
The director has talked about his vision for this project for years. He previously shared his love for the property, but also explained that he does have a fear of making it:
“Frankenstein to me is the pinnacle of everything, and part of me wants to do a version of it, part of me has for more than 25 years chickened out of making it. I dream I can make the greatest Frankenstein ever, but then if you make it, you’ve made it. Whether it’s great or not, it’s done. You cannot dream about it anymore. That’s the tragedy of a filmmaker. You can dream of something but once you’ve made it, you’ve made it. That’s it. You landed a 10 or you landed a 6.5 but you were at the Olympics already, and you were judged.”
I can’t wait to see Del Toro’s vision of Frankenstein come to life!
