Mary’s Monster: Farren Blackburn to direct film about Frankenstein creator Mary Shelley

We’ve seen movies about author Mary Shelley writing her iconic novel Frankenstein before, like the Shudder release A Nightmare Wakes and Mary Shelley, starring Elle Fanning. (Our reviewers Jake Dee and Jimmy O both gave that one 5/10 reviews.) Seven and a half years ago, we heard about another Mary Shelley project that was being called Mary Shelley’s Monster, but that one never made it into production. Now it looks like it might finally happen, as Variety reports that Fulwell 73 and Rose Pictures are teaming up to produce the feature, now going by the shortened title Mary’s Monster.

Farren Blackburn (A Discovery of Witches) will be directing Mary’s Monster, working from a screenplay by Deborah Baxtrom. Baxtrom previously wrote and directed the series Living with Frankenstein, which imagined Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, and Frankenstein’s Monster living in modern day Los Angeles. The screenplay for Mary’s Monster has the following logline:

Terrified of giving voice to the darkness of her subconscious mind, Mary Shelley locks into a dangerous battle with her own ‘inner monster’ as she struggles to write her seminal science fiction novel, ‘Frankenstein.’

Fulwell 73’s Heather Greenwood and Leo Pearlman are producing the film with Rose Pictures’ Rose Ganguzza, Max Born, Damon Lane, and Jake Alden-Falconer.

When we previously heard about Mary’s Monster back in 2014, Coky Giedroyc (Penny Dreadful) was on board to direct and had already cast Sophie Turner (Game of Thrones) as Mary Shelley, Jeremy Irvine (War Horse) as her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Taissa Farmiga (American Horror Story) as Mary’s stepsister Clair Clairmont. All this time later, Blackburn will surely have to start from scratch when it comes to casting.

Here’s how producer Rose Ganguzza described the project at that time:

The story of the most extraordinary 19th century teenage heroine told in a visceral, sexy, contemporary way…Our film is not a period drama. It is a story of youth that transcends time, a gothic romance, a love triangle that involves a dark passenger and we are tremendously excited to have such an exciting cast onboard this wonderful project.”

It’s not clear why Mary’s Monster didn’t happen back then, but I’m glad they’re getting another shot at it.