Earlier this year it was reported that Academy Award-nominated producer Amy Pascal was planning to revive Universal Pictures’ long-in-development reboot of The Bride of Frankenstein. Now, it seems like the project is still in active development with Jurassic Park writer David Koepp, who has been attached to the film since 2015, officially confirming that he and studio are still very committed to producing the remake.
Speaking with Collider, Koepp has revealed that they currently have two versions of the story that they are trying to decide on as the studio has already started the process of recruiting its potential director. However, it’s still unclear whether the project was indeed revived due to Pascal’s sudden involvement or not.
“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,” Koepp said. “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,”
In addition, he also addressed if The Bride of Frankenstein will also have the same direction and budget as with Blumhouse’s critically-acclaimed The Invisible Man, or will the remake still retain its previous high-scale idea.
“It’s not the great big, $150 million extravaganza with giant movie stars,” Koepp explained. “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.”
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Based on the studio’s classic monster, The Bride of Frankenstein reboot has been in development since 2015 with David Koepp signing on as the screenwriter. In 2017, Bill Condon has been tapped to direct with Oscar winners Javier Bardem and Angelina Jolie attached to lead the film as the iconic pair of monsters. However, after Tom Cruise’s 2017 The Mummy film was met with negative reviews, the studio decided not go through with the production of Condon’s film.
Koepp previously described his vision as a liberation tale about a female monster created for companionship who has quite the opposite in mind. It is still unclear whether Angelina Jolie is still attached to portray the titular monster or not. But according to the outlet, she reportedly remains committed to the project as long as the right creative team comes along with it.
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The Bride of Frankenstein remake is part of the growing list of Universal’s upcoming monster projects including Paul Feig’s Dark Army, Dexter Fletcher’s film about Dracula henchman Renfield, Elizabeth Banks’ Invisible Woman, Matt Stawki’s Monster Mash, James Wan’s untitled monster film, Karyn Kusam’s Dracula and the Ryan Gosling-led Wolfman film.
