The Dark Universe created by Universal Pictures was the studio’s failed attempt at setting up an expensively-mounted interconnected horror franchise populated by iconic monsters from Dracula to The Mummy. But that failure led to the creation of the recent critically acclaimed low-budget hitThe Invisible Man. David Koepp, who is creating a script forBride of Frankenstein, spoke about how its treatment was affected by the success ofThe Invisible Man.
“It’s definitely standalone. Universal famously tried this idea ofgreat big connected horror moviesin a thing, and it didn’t work, and it didn’t work really spectacularly. And I was impressed that they stood back and said, ‘Hang on, let’s give this a year or two and really think about it, and come at these in a singular way, and see what filmmakers … let’s listen to filmmakers with distinctive points of view.'”
“And I think the first one that really broke through is [producer] Jason’s [Blum]The Invisible Man, which was made as a really well-thought, and well-conceived idea that existed completely on its own. And it was made for a reasonable amount of money, which actually gives you more creative freedom, rather than less. And I think that kind of showed the way that they can go with some of their things.”
The Invisible Mantells the tale of a woman, played by Elizabeth Moss, who is terrorized by her ex-lover after he discovers the secret to making himself invisible. The taut thriller utilized small moments in intimate settings to dial up the tension and make the audience a part of Moss’s desperate attempts to escape the clutches of an invisible terror. The film was scary in a way thatDracula Untoldor Tom Cruise’sThe Mummycould never hope to be and made healthy profits as a result. Now,David Koepphopes to replicate that success withBride of Frankenstein.
“So Bride of Frankenstein, I certainly looked at, and learned from, their Invisible Man experience, and thought, ‘How can I make this a present-day story, that’s kind of bold and that people would be interested in and that they can actually make,” the filmmaker added. “So, I felt liberated. So, I liked the way it turned out. We’ll see what happens.”
Bride of Frankensteinwas a sequel to the originalFrankensteinmovie that debuted all the way back in 1935. It was inspired by a minor subplot in Mary Shelley’s originalFrankensteinnovel where the doctor is coerced into making a new female monster to provide company for the original creature he had created in his lab.Bride of Frankensteinis considered a classic, and one of the most influentialUniversal Monstersmovies in the horror genre.
Angelina Jolie was at one point rumored to be playing the lead in the reboot as the new Bride of Frankenstein. Talks for that film fell through, and now Koepp is working on bringing his own, small-to-mid-budget reinvention of the movie to the big screen, where it will hopefully meet with the same kind of success asThe Invisible Man. This news originated atComicBook.com.
