Christian Bale will soon headed back to work…with a lot less hair.
During an interview on Thursday in Palmdale, Calif. — where the Oscar winner led a groundbreaking for a 16-year passion project that will be a village of homes where foster siblings can live under one roof — The Hollywood Reporter asked Bale what’s next on his schedule.
“I’ve got to shave my head next week [for a movie],” he said, referring to the untitled Maggie Gyllenhaal film he’s about to do for Warner Bros. in which he will play Frankenstein. Shooting is expected to start in the coming weeks. “I asked them to please let me hold off on doing that but everyone was going, ‘What’s wrong with Bale? What’s up with him?’ I said, ‘Just let me get through the groundbreaking and then I’ll be off to join you.’”
News of the project surfaced last August via Production Weekly, and a more recent headline in Deadline revealed that Gyllenhaal had gathered an all-star cast for her second effort in the director’s chair. Bale is set to star opposite Jessie Buckley, Annette Bening, Penelope Cruz and Peter Sarsgaard. The Jan. 12 report, which noted that the film originally was set up at Netflix before moving to Warner Bros., said it’s set to focus on Frankenstein’s pursuit of love. The logline follows a lonely Frankenstein who travels to 1930s Chicago to seek the aide of a Dr. Euphronius in creating a companion for himself. The two reinvigorate a murdered young woman and the Bride is born.
While The Hollywood Reporter didn’t have time to ask Bale about the plot, the actor did take a moment to praise his collaborators. “I’ll be working with the wonderful Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jessie Buckley and so many talented actors in the cast. I’ve got to get busy getting on the rack, breaking my bones and eating lots of fertilizer or something to try and grow.”
