The Dark Universe movie Bride of Frankenstein is still in development. Right from its earliest days, Universal has been one of the most successful Hollywood studios. Part of this success can be attributed to decades worth of beloved monster movies.
Beginning in the 1920s and maintaining momentum well into the ’50s, not only did Universal’s unique takes on the likes of Dracula, Frankenstein and the Invisible Man (to name a few) captivate as well as frighten audiences, they also laid the foundation for monster movies the world over. Japan’s Toho Studios developed Godzilla, England’s Hammer Film Productions released titles such as Revenge of Frankenstein and The Abominable Snowman. Monster movies were big business, and in recent years, Universal decided that it wanted to explore those original titles once again. Unfortunately, The Dark Universe – a shared universe of resurrected and rebooted classic monster movie characters – came to an end after the Tom Cruise led The Mummy failed to kick things off in a big way, back in 2017. Universal’s key creatives on the project, Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan stepped away from the concept soon after The Mummy’s demise. Eventually, Universal decided to quietly drop their Dark Universe concept in favor of standalone monster movie reboots.
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In other words, the Dark Universe may be dead, but Universal’s commitment to bringing back classic monsters for a new generation may not be. This was further emphasized recently by a conversation that Collider had with acclaimed screenwriter David Koepp. During the interview, Koepp explained he decided to revisit his script for The Bride of Frankenstein, while stuck at home due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Koepp claims he was able to bring the script into “a place where I kind of always wanted it to be” and credits Universal with being gracious enough to let him “try again” on a story that many had already moved on from:
“So I have a version now and they have a version that we all really like. I think they’re talking to directors now.”
Koepp also had further praise for Universal after the studio was faced with the reality of their Dark Universe concept not being the success they had anticipated:
“Not all ideas work out. To their credit, what I really admired about Universal is they threw their hands up and went, ‘Hold on. This isn’t working out. Let’s stop and think for a year or two.’ I thought that was really smart. And big corporations don’t often do that. There aren’t a lot of New Coke moments where they go, ‘This is not as we hoped. We’re going to stop and go off on this other direction.’”
The Bride of Frankenstein had been set up to be the next release after The Mummy, with casting rumors circulating for some time that Angelina Jolie would play the eponymous character. But of course, everything with the project seemed to unravel in the wake of Kurtzman and Morgan’s departure and the rather quiet death of the Dark Universe. However, the success of Blumhouse’s The Invisible Man has shown that audiences aren’t opposed to classic monster movie characters, and this pared-down new take on a well-known concept could be the model for The Bride of Frankenstein.
If Koepp is correct and Universal are currently talking to directors for The Bride of Frankenstein, it will be interesting to see who they ultimately settle on. The film has a lot of potential, especially now that Universal seems to have realized that it doesn’t have to wade into the Tom Cruise, high octane, massively budgeted realm to create something that audiences take to.
Source: Collider
