That’s right, Universal is resurrecting the Bride of Frankenstein. The remake, which has been in and out of development for the past dozen years, is back in development under the writing and direction of Neil Burger. Burger wrote and directed the Ed Norton and Jessica Biel magician period piece The Illusionist, and the Tim Robbins and Rachael McAdams Iraq War drama, The Lucky Ones.
This remake joins the Creature from the Black Lagoon, which is in development, and The Wolfman, which hits theaters in early November. Creature is being helmed by Breck Eisner, who directed the action flick Sahara and is also helming a remake of the cult horror film The Crazies. The film has had just as many stop and go moments as Bride and I would not be surprised to see it go down again. The Wolfman however, has been finished for a while. I saw footage of it at Comic Con ages ago. Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park III, Jumanji) directed the film with Benicio Del Toro as the Wolfman (perfect casting IMHO), along with a very talented supporting cast that includes Emily Blunt, Hugo Weaving, and Sir Anthony Hopkins. The make-up effects look fantastic and with music by Danny Elfman, I am genuinely excited for the horror remake. Anyone that knows me knows just how much I hate remakes.
I’m not sure how I feel about a Bride of Frankenstein remake. The Illusionist was a good film and Burger has shown that hes an actor’s director. A similar style that Burger used in Illusionist could work well with Bride. It just feels wrong to make this remake without remaking Frankenstein first to establish the world. Bride is very much a continuation of the monster’s story. Are they going to merge the two films together? Or will they start from scratch, throwing out everything we know and just using the film’s name? Chances are, it probability will never come to life.
