Universal has been flirting with the idea of remaking the 1935 classic BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN for over twenty years, and as the decades have gone by several drafts of the script have been written, including one by INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE author Anne Rice. Now that the studio is rebooting all of its popular monster properties to create the Universal Monsters Cinematic Universe, where the monsters will be crossing paths with each other just like they did in the old days, the remake of BRIDE probably has a better chance of happening than ever before.
The lastest screenwriter tasked to revive the story is one of Hollywood's biggest writers, David Koepp, whose credits include JURASSIC PARK, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, SPIDER-MAN, PANIC ROOM, and INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL. Koepp is currently doing the press rounds for the Ron Howard / Tom Hanks film INFERNO, which he adapted from the Dan Brown novel, and during an interview with him Collider was able to get some information about Koepp's BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN.
Koepp isn't sure when BRIDE will move toward production, but says that his script seems to have gone over very well.
I loved it. It’s one of my favorite scripts I’ve written in years because if you reimagine the Frankenstein story, it gets into so many issues of men trying to feel dominant over women. To create someone who then says, “You don’t own me,” it becomes a tale of liberation."
Koepp found writing the script to be liberating himself, finding fun in writing a character who's dead but still a super-intelligent creature rather than the average zombie.
On the subject of whether or not an entry in this fledgling Cinematic Universe can be unique or has to closely match the other films in the universe, Koepp said,
You get some of both, and I think they’re figuring that out as they go. I was in touch with the other people who were making Mummy and in touch with Universal and getting a sense of what they’re doing, because they can’t be wholly different movies, but each one is characterized by the personality of its creature. So the stories are dictated by the creature. In ours, the Bride is essentially a sympathetic figure. This tragic, hunted figure. And obviously the Mummy is a very bad entity that must be stopped. That’s not us. The troublemakers are the ones who would try to control her. To answer your question, we’re all from the same tree, but different kinds of fruit."
When Koepp was hired to write the film, there were rumblings that Universal also intended to offer BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN to Angelina Jolie as a directing and starring gig. There has been no further word on whether or not Jolie might be involved.
The gates to the Universal Monsters Cinematic Universe will be flung open on June 9, 2017 when THE MUMMY reaches theatres.