Barely a month after we realized that Hollywood is hard at work in its basement laboratories, assembling the desiccated bones of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein into a mishmash monster comprised of no less than seven separate Frankenstein movies, there’s already a new mad scientist crowing in and trying to capture that same regenerative lightning. Fox has just hired Max Landis (son of John) to write yet another screenplay inspired by Shelley’s novel, potentially as a directorial gig for Paul Greengrass or Harry Potter’s David Yates. No word yet on Landis’ take on the tale, but as we recounted earlier, these spins are already taken: classic (Universal); “contemporary retelling” (Sony); Twilight-y teen-oriented origin story (Summit); Shakespeare In Love-like meta blend of fact and fiction (Sam Raimi); and hyper-stylized graphic novel adaptation (Slash’s Wake The Dead). These, plus the remakes of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie, mean Landis will have to dig deep (Eh? Ehhhhh?) for something unique. In honor of his dad, maybe Frankenstein is buddy cops with a werewolf? Or maybe a movie about a guy who's always saying, "Uh, actually, 'Frankenstein' is the name of the doctor, not the monster" being hunted and then mercilessly torn apart by Frankenstein.
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