Bill Condon may bring Bride Of Frankenstein to a new world of franchises and reboots

According to Deadline, Universal Pictures is in talks with director Bill Condon to turn James Whale’s Bride Of Frankenstein—the greatest, most ingeniously strange, and most self-reflexive of all classic monster movies—into a franchise tentpole that will presumably run two-and-a-half hours and have no ending. Admittedly, this terrible idea has a better pedigree than most terrible ideas that come out of Hollywood. For one, the screenplay for the new Bride Of Frankenstein is being penned by David Koepp, the screenwriter of Jurassic Park, Carlito’s Way, Panic Room, and, of course, The Shadow. For another, Condon—despite his recent box-office success with an overlong and unnecessary remake of a widely beloved film, which probably got these negotiations started—first had his breakthrough with Gods And Monsters, a fictionalized drama about Whale. (The title, of course, comes from a famous quote from Bride Of Frankenstein.) The film won Condon an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay and put him on the path to directing a hacky multi-part Twilight sequel that also references Bride Of Frankenstein. Clearly, the man for the job is Condon—and not, say, any number of directors with a more fully developed visual sensibility or a better track record with stylized comedy and horror.

Though it’s still in the early stages of development, Bride Of Frankenstein will be part of Unviersal’s planned classic monster reboot franchise, which will kick off this June with Alex Kurtzman’s The Mummy, a film that our readers surely all remember exists and are looking forward with unbearable anticipation.