Frankenstein producer says Guillermo del Toro is building his own monster universe

Dark Universe, Universal’s scrapped attempt to make a series of reboots of their classic monster properties that would crossover with each other, was overseen by Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan – but long before Kurtzman and Morgan got involved, Universal had offered Guillermo del Toro the chance to take over their monster universe. Del Toro turned down the opportunity, which is a choice he regretted. But now his longtime producing partner J. Miles Dale has said that he is building his own monster universe with his original projects. Del Toro’s Best Picture winner The Shape of Water was a take on Creature from the Black Lagoon, and he’s now developing a live-action of adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Last we heard, it was rumored that Mia Goth (Pearl), Oscar Isaac (Moon Knight), and Andrew Garfield (Tick, Tick… Boom!) were being considered for lead roles in Frankenstein. Dale didn’t confirm or deny their involvement, but he did tell A.Frame the film has “a pretty good cast. We’ve had pretty good casts the last couple films. The last one was insane, frankly. I mean, that’s a pinch-me cast. And so was The Shape of Water cast. That’s another dream cast. I think there are a lot of actors that really want to work with Guillermo, and so that makes things a little bit easier. So, it should be fun. Nothing’s easy, and that one’s not going to be easy — it’s a big movie with a ship stuck in the ice and a ton of other things — but we’ve got a little bit of lead time on it, and we’re excited to get going.“

Dale also said that del Toro and Frankenstein are a perfect match of filmmaker and subject matter, and suggested the film could be as “deeply emotional” as the book is. “In the last couple of films, certainly with Nightmare Alley and then with Pinocchio, we’ve dealt with the whole father-son relationship. And Guillermo and I both lost our fathers in the last few years. When you have a strong father figure, it’s a big part of our lives. This version of Frankenstein very much goes down that thematic road. So, I feel like this is the third film in Guillermo’s father trilogy. That’s exciting, and when you read the script, it’s very emotional and, of course, very iconic.“

Here’s his quote about building a monster universe: “At one time, (del Toro) was going to do the Monster Universe with Universal — Frankenstein’s Bride, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Invisible Man, The Wolf Man — and he didn’t. We feel like Shape of Water was kind of a version of a creature. So now, here he is doing his own Monster Universe.“

Del Toro has been talking about making a new version of Frankenstein for more than a decade. At one point, he did have the project set up at Universal, with Doug Jones (The Shape of Water) on board to play Frankenstein’s Monster. The movie got far enough into pre-production that Jones even saw a bust of the Monster that was inspired by Bernie Wrightson’s artwork in an illustrated adaptation of Shelley’s novel that Wrightson spent seven years working on. But then the project fell apart. Now it’s finally happening at the Netflix streaming service, which previously teamed with del Toro on Pinocchio and the anthology series Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities.

Are you glad to see that del Toro is finally making Frankenstein and continuing to build his own monster universe? Share your thoughts on this project by leaving a comment below.