So, by any metric, THE MUMMY was a disappointment. Even if you somehow enjoyed the film (it was more aggressively bland and mediocre than outright terrible), the film greatly underperformed, and is a bit of bumpy start for Universal’s grand plans for a Dark Universe that’ll rival the current MCU and DCEU. But they haven’t given up hope yet! The planned BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN remake is still underway!
Here’s an excerpt from an interview with director Bill Condon, conducted by Simon Thompson of Forbes:
Simon Thompson: You’re in pre-production on Bride of Frankenstein right now. How is that going? Do you have a start date?
Bill Condon: We start on February 1st, 2018 so it’s the early days but just to be here in London, starting to see locations and to talk about sets that we’re building, it’s very exciting. For me, the James Whale movie is really right there in the pantheon for me. As you know, the Bride is a character who appears in the last five minutes and then is destroyed so it’s a way to almost continue the movie that you imagine the movie he might have made the third Frankenstein movie but in 2018.
ST: There’s been a lot of speculation around who is going to play the Bride with Angelina Jolie‘s name being mentioned. Have you sealed someone for the cast with the initials A and J?
BC: Not yet, no. Nothing is set yet. I think pretty soon but I think we’re trying to figure that out now but obviously, pretty soon we’re going to have to start really honing in on it. I’m not trying to be coy but I really shouldn’t say.
That’s interesting. They’ve already cast much of the Dark Universe characters – such as Johnny Depp as the Invisible Man and Javier Bardem as Frankenstein’s monster – with Angelina Jolie‘s name regularly mentioned alongside them. The fact that it’s not confirmed doesn’t mean she’s not in it, but with shooting coming up fast, we should have confirmation one way or another soon.
Meanwhile, BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN is still set to hit theaters Valentines Day, 2019.