Before the disappointment of The Mummy hammered the nail into the coffin of Universal Pictures’ Dark Universe, the studio had intended on opening up the world of the shared Universal Monsters universe by moving on to Bride of Frankenstein for its second instalment.
Bill Condon (Beauty and the Beast) was on board to direct from a script by David Koepp (Jurassic Park), sets were under construction and Angelina Jolie was said to be circling the role of the Bride ahead of a planned February 2019 release. However, the rug was pulled from beneath the remake as producers and Dark Universe masterminds Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan exited, and Universal decided to go down a different route with its iconic Monster IPs, beginning with this year’s hit The Invisible Man from Blumhouse.
However, it seems that Bride of Frankenstein may live again, as screenwriter Koepp has revealed to Collider that he’s written a new draft of the script which Universal is high on, and the studio is currently seeking a director.
“That was one thing I did during quarantine – I brought back Bride of Frankenstein into a place where I kind of always wanted it to be,” said Koepp. “Universal was very gracious to let me try again. Because they had geared up and shut down famously in the Dark Universe fiasco. Well, not fiasco, but disappointment. So I have a version now and they have a version that we all really like. I think they’re talking to directors now. It’s not the great big, $150 million extravaganza with giant movie stars. It’s not as scaled down as Invisible Man but much more reasonable, doable thing, with, I think, a really cool idea and it’s all present day.”
Koepp also went on to talk about Universal’s decision to axe the Dark Universe, stating: “Not all ideas work out. To their credit, what I really admired about Universal is they threw their hands up and went, ‘Hold on. This isn’t working out. Let’s stop and think for a year or two.’ I thought that was really smart. And big corporations don’t often do that. There aren’t a lot of New Coke moments where they go, ‘This is not as we hoped. We’re going to stop and go off on this other direction.”
Are you excited about the prospect of a present day-set Bride of Frankenstein remake? Let us know in the comments or on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
