Universal’s shared monster universe is really starting to come together, with The Mummy serving as the Big Bang some time in 2017. There will, of course, be a Wolf Man and Frankenstein in the monster melee, which will set up Van Helsing as their frenemy. But if these developments have all pointed to a rotting sausage fest for you, rest assured that there will be at least one female protagonist in one of these movies. Bride Of Frankenstein, the 1935 sequel to Universal’s Frankenstein, is also getting the remake treatment from the studio.
Although its release hasn’t been slated just yet—there’s no word on whether Universal will follow Marvel Studio’s “phasing” plan—the reboot has already been written by Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp. That’s according to Collider’s interview with the writer, who’s currently out stumping for the Tom Hanks-led Inferno. Koepp says he’s already submitted a draft that’s “gone over very well” with Universal; he believes the studio is now just “figuring out their whole universe and when it will go.” He seems to really dig the treatment himself, telling Collider that it’s “one of [his] favorite scripts.”
What seems to have Koepp so jazzed about the whole thing is his idea to repackage the Bride as a symbol of “female liberation.” (That will hopefully include giving her an actual name, instead of referring to her solely by her relationship to a man, er, monster.) The scribe says revisiting Frankenstein just highlights the “many issues of men trying to feel dominant over women,” presumably by just digging one up and arranging her marriage. Koepp’s excited to “create someone who then says, ‘You don’t own me,’” which could be a reference to the Bride’s rejection of Frankenstein’s monster near the original film’s conclusion. And Koepp’s written her as a “super-intelligent creature,” but one who we must remember is dead, which “changes a person’s perspective.” We assume that means she’ll want to make up for lost time with her family, but Koepp could really go anywhere with that.