Bride of Frankenstein remake from Maggie Gyllenhaal starts filming soon (Updated with more info)

UPDATE: Deadline reveals that Annette Bening (The Kids Are Alright) is also in the cast. Their sources tell them Jessie Buckley is “the star”, so possibly the Bride instead of Penelope Cruz. They also provided a synopsis: A lonely Frankenstein travels to 1930s Chicago to seek the aide of a Dr. Euphronius in creating a companion for himself. The two reinvigorate a murdered young woman and the Bride is born. She is beyond what either of them intended, igniting a combustible romance, the attention of the police and a wild and radical social movement.

The original article, posted earlier today, follows:

Five months ago, word leaked out that Maggie Gyllenhaal was set to direct a film called The Bride, a new take on the concept of the 1935 classic The Bride of Frankenstein  (watch it HERE), for the Netflix streaming service. At that time, Gyllenhaal had even already secured two cast members for the film: her The Dark Knight co-star Christian Bale and her husband Peter Sarsgaard. Now Production List is reporting that The Bride is expected to start filming in New York on March 4th, and Penelope Cruz has been cast as the title character!

We don’t have a synopsis for The Bride just yet, but the original The Bride of Frankenstein told the following story: After recovering from injuries sustained in the mob attack upon himself and his creation, Dr. Frankenstein falls under the control of his former mentor, Dr. Pretorius, who insists the now-chastened doctor resume his experiments in creating new life. Meanwhile, the Monster remains on the run from those who wish to destroy him without understanding that his intentions are generally good despite his lack of socialization and self-control.

Here’s how Production List describes the new film: A horror thriller, about the Bride of Frankenstein. With Cruz as the bride Myrna, Bale as Frankenstein, and Sarsgaard playing a detective.

Jessie Buckley of Men, I’m Thinking of Ending Things, and Gyllenhaal’s film The Lost Daughter (which was another Netflix release) is also said to be in the cast.

This isn’t a Universal project, but it wouldn’t be the first Bride of Frankenstein remake to be made by a different company. In 1985, Columbia Pictures brought us another movie simply called The Bride, which starred Sting as Baron Charles Frankenstein, Jennifer Beals as Eva (the bride) and Clancy Brown as Viktor (the monster). A few years ago, it was announced that Scarlett Johansson was going to star in a similar project called Bride for A24 and Apple, but that still hasn’t made it into production.

It’s interesting to see Penelope Cruz sign on to play the Bride, because back in the Dark Universe days, when Universal was developing their own reboots of Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, Cruz’s husband Javier Bardem was attached to play their new version of Frankenstein’s Monster. But rather than Cruz, their choices for the Bride were Angelina Jolie or Gal Gadot.

Are you interested in The Bride? What do you think of Maggie Gyllenhaal taking on this subject matter – and the cast she has assembled for the film? Let us know by leaving a comment below.