Blumhouse wants to make a Frankenstein movie

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Blumhouse Productions' reboot of THE INVISIBLE MAN is a financial and critical hit for Universal, so it's pretty much guaranteed that the production company and the studio are going to work together on future monster properties as Universal moves forward with their endeavor to bring their classic monsters back to the screen. There are several monster projects in development that Blumhouse isn't involved with – Elizabeth Banks' THE INVISIBLE WOMAN, Paul Feig's DARK ARMY, Dexter Fletcher's RENFIELD, Matt Stawski's musical MONSTER MASH – but it's surely only a matter of time before Blumhouse gets their hands on another monster.

Blumhouse founder Jason Blum is quite open to producing more Universal monster movies. In an interview conducted for Bloomberg before THE INVISIBLE MAN was released, Blum said, 

I would say to Universal, “What monsters are available that I could play around with?” I would send those things to our seven favorite filmmakers. But I’m not going to talk to Universal until THE INVISIBLE MAN comes out."

But he wouldn't agree to do any monster movie until after he was sure one of the filmmakers he's associated with had a good idea for it. Speaking with The Evolution of Horror, he said, 

I have no plans to do any other monsters, but I would like to. I would only go to Universal and ask if I had a filmmaker and an idea, which is what we did with THE INVISIBLE MAN, you know, Leigh had a very specific idea. I don't know what's going on with the other ones, I don't know what's available and what's not available, and I'm not gonna ask unless I have another partner who has a great take on one of these ideas."

Universal has shown great interest in making a new version of THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN. Several scripts for a BRIDE remake have been written over the years, author Anne Rice even contributed one. A version that would have had Bill Condon directing from a screenplay by David Koepp was supposed to start filming in early 2018, but that production was cancelled after Universal saw how THE MUMMY was received in 2017. Since then, John Krasinski has "tinkered with an iteration of BRIDE and other Universal characters", and producer Amy Pascal has considered reteaming with her SPIDER-MAN collaborators Sam Raimi and Koepp for the project. 

Blum has an interest in FRANKENSTEIN as well, but it sounds like he would leave the Bride out of it. Responding to a question that mentioned THE INVISIBLE MAN having a great, "why didn't I think of this before?" concept, he told The Evolution of Horror:

I'd love to do FRANKENSTEIN. I've tasked our filmmakers with trying to figure out just straight FRANKENSTEIN. Again, I don't know if someone else is doing it, I don't know anything about it, but I would love to try and I'm waiting for the great idea. THE INVISIBLE MAN, I agree, the best ideas feel like, 'My gosh, it's so obvious, why didn't that happen before?' If we could come up with something as good for FRANKENSTEIN, I'd love to try that."

Now we just have to wait and see what monster movie Blumhouse and Universal will end up working together on next time.