Having just watched the first season of Barry Langford and Benjamin Ross' THE FRANKENSTEIN CHRONICLES on Netflix, I must say that I'm pleased to see yet another project related to the classic movie monster will be making its way to the big screen courtesy of director Haifaa Al-Mansour (WADJDA, NAPPILY EVER AFTER).
Al-Mansour's upcoming drama, entitled MARY SHELLEY, stars Elle Fanning as a 16-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, now known to many as the legendary author of the 1818-published novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. In the film, Mary falls in love and marries a young poet by the name of Percy Bysshe Shelley (portrayed by Douglas Booth). As the tale unfolds, Mary is framed as an imaginative sort who's fascination with the macabre was spurned by the untimely death of her mother Mary Wollstonecroft, a philosopher and feminist writer who died all-too-soon after Mary’s birth.
After a celebrated poet by the name of Lord Byron (Tom Sturridge), a friend of Mary's husband, proposes a challenge for his group of friends to each construct their own ghost story, Mary's life is turned upside down as the horrors she puts to paper soon become a threat to her own real life.
MARY SHELLEY is set to shamble into theaters for a limited release beginning on May 25th, and looks to tell a new and sordid tale of how one of the greatest stories in all of literature was born from an act of cruelty, deception, and greed.
What are your favorite films starring Frankenstein's monster? For me, I'd have to go with Mel Brooks' YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, Tim Burton's FRANKENWEENIE, Paul Morrissey's FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN, and of course, MONSTER SQUAD. Let us know your pics in the comments section below.