Goth Chick News: Here Comes Another Classic Monster Remake
Much like fashion, movie themes come in repeatable waves, and if you wait long enough everything that was called “classic” will eventually come back around. Such seems to be the case with the classic movie monsters, originally made famous in the 1930’s and 40’s by Universal Studios. Recently we’ve seen The Invitation and The Last Voyage of the Demeter (Dracula), The Cursed (werewolf), and Birth/Rebirth (Frankenstein), but frankly, there are a whole list of projects currently in production which pay homage to the originals. Of late there have been industry announcements around titles such as Frankenstein vs Dracula, This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein, and Feed to name a few. So, if you’re wondering if the bride of Frankenstein’s monster is going to get any love in the modern age, I’m here to tell you that she is.
A couple weeks back MovieWeb announced that Maggie Gyllenhaal was set to step behind the camera as the director of a remake of Bride of Frankenstein. Christian Bale was announced to be playing Victor Frankenstein, alongside Peter Sarsgaard (Gyllenhaal’s hubby) in a yet-to-be named starring role. There are rumors that in addition to directing, Gyllenhaal herself might play Elsa Lanchester’s iconic character, but I can’t find anything to substantiate this. The project, which is said to be titled The Bride, is set up at Netflix.
The Bride (Columbia Pictures, 1985)
If you’re thinking this sounds vaguely familiar, you’re right. In 1985, Sting and Jennifer Beals (fresh off Flashdance) starred together in another BofF interpretation also called The Bride. Despite its star power, the movie was a stupendous failure, bringing in a mere $3.6M against a production budget of $13M, clearly most of which was spent on the actors, and almost none spent on the writers.
Then, back in 2017 BofF was set to be the second film in Universal Studios Dark Universe reboot of all their monsters. However, when The Mummy (2017) starring Tom Cruise crapped its wrappings, Collider reported the pre-production crew on BofF was told to go home, and stars Javier Bardem (Dr. Frankenstein) and Angelina Jolie (the Bride) were permanently waived off. Eventually, Universal ditched the idea of further abusing their wonderful monster catalog, much to the relief of fans.
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Instead, they turned their energy to creating a monster theme park, and are letting other people take a swing at telling these tales. Personally, I feel small screen efforts like Hemlock Grove and Penny Dreadful have resulted in the best retellings, so there is a fair chance that the Gyllenhaal/Netflix partnership might do justice to BofF. Then again, news generated by the SAG-AFTRA strike has made me uncomfortably aware of the sheer volume of garbage being thrown at viewers via streaming services.
Production on The Bride is set to begin early next year, with no release date yet speculated.
I give this one a 50/50 chance. What do you think?
Ah, yes, homage. I guess that’s what lampreys and leeches are paying their victims when they latch onto them. Ah well, grab the green and run, why not? Financial ripples are the only effect this sort of project can have anyway, because even when a movie like this is good, it cannot revoke the Iron Law that says that The One Who Got There First Cannot Be Supplanted. So Karloff and Lanchester are perfectly safe, thank God.
Damn, I’m getting to be a bitter, cynical old man! Maybe I should just have something to eat…
TPark – whoa, I’m getting you a Snickers bar asap. But I too get irked when instead of re-introducing audiences to the classics, Hollywood will insist on trying to “update” them for a new generation. By the time we saw all these, we already were the “new” generation (a few times over), and the classics held up just fine.
You mention Penny Dreadful which I thought was pretty great. However, my favorite modern retelling of the classic monsters is The Frankenstein Chronicles, my favorite show I’ve never seen anyone talk about. Same it never got a third season. Wonderfully gothic. I think this and Penny Dreadful are the best way to handle these properties.
SB, my bad for not mentioning The Frankenstein Chronicles. Do try Hemlock Grove – S1E3 contains what is likely the best werewolf transformation I have EVER seen.