There are so many movies in development based on the classic Frankenstein story that it's virtually impossible to keep track of them, especially since half of them only have working titles and none of them have actually started shooting. But now instead of "that one that's set in modern day" or "that one with Mary Shelley as a character," you can remember "that one with Haley Joel Osment"-- that one's going to stick out in your brain, don't you think?
According to Variety, Osment has been cast in Wake the Dead, which will be a modern-day take on the Frankenstein story, casting Osment as a college student who wants to reverse the inexorable process of death. This one will be based on the graphic novel of the same name by Steven Niles, and is produced by Guns n Roses guitarist Slash, of all people, along with his Slasher FIlms partners Michael Williams and Rob Eric. Jay Russell, whose recent films have included the kid-friendly The Water Horse and My Dog Skip but also has the action film Ladder 49 under his belt, is set to direct.
The Variety piece says that Osment has been attending college and on hiatus from acting in the last few years, and you can't really blame him for pursuing his other options-- he went from scoring an Oscar nomination for The Sixth Sense and working with Steven Spielberg in A.I. to, well, growing up, a pretty uncomfortable situation for one of the world's most famous child actors. In 2007 he was in something called Home of the Giants, but otherwise hasn't been seen on screen since 2003's Secondhand Lions, a pretty incredible gap even by awkward adolescent standards. It's actually great to hear that Osment will be returning to the screen in something dark and different from his child roles, but possibly not so dark as to be alarming (I definitely don't need to see the guy playing a serial killer). If his casting indicates that the film is close to going into production, Wake the Dead could be the first of the many circulating Frankenstein projects to actually get off the ground.
