Poor Things: poster unveiled for Emma Stone Frankenstein story

Fox Searchlight will be giving the “female Frankenstein” story Poor Things, which stars Emma Stone (Cruella), a theatrical release on September 8th. In anticipation of that release, Vogue has just published an exclusive interview with Stone and director Yorgos Lanthimos – and in that article, they have unveiled a poster for the film, which you can check out at the bottom of this article.

Lanthimos has directed Poor Things from a screenplay by Tony McNamara, based on a novel by Alasdair Gray (pick up a copy HERE). Stone is joined in the cast by Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man: No Way Home), Mark Ruffalo (The Avengers), Ramy Youssef (Ramy), Jerrod Carmichael (The Carmichael Show), Margaret Qualley (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), Suzy Bemba (Kandisha), and Christopher Abbott (Possessor).

Stone earned an Oscar nomination for her role in Lanthimos’s film The Favourite, and Poor Things brings them back together. In the Vogue interview, Lanthimos reveals that he has been wanting to make Poor Things for several years, going back to the days before his 2015 film The Lobster, and had been talking to Stone about the project since they were working on The Favourite together. He told Vogue, “After the relative success of The Favourite, where I actually made a slightly more expensive film that was successful, people were more inclined to allow me to do whatever it is that I wanted, so I just went back to Gray’s book and said, ‘This is what I want to do.’ It was a long process, but the book was always on my mind.“

The film is described as being the incredible tale and fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter (Stone), a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Dafoe). Under Baxter’s protection, Bella is eager to learn. Hungry for the worldliness she is lacking, Bella runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.

When we first heard about Poor Things, all we knew about the story was that it was called a “female Frankenstein” story because after drowning herself to escape her abusive husband, Bella’s brain is replaced by that of her unborn child. We learned more by looking up the description of Gray’s novel, and that description goes along with the full synopsis the film has now. 

To find out a lot more about Poor Things, click over to the Vogue interview.

Are you interested in Poor Things? Let us know by leaving a comment below – and while you’re scrolling down, take a moment to check out this poster: