Dark Universe Holdover Bride Of Frankenstein Has Found New Life At Universal

Bride of Frankenstein

Back when Universal Pictures was still pushing ahead with its Dark Universe franchise, the plan was for a new version of Bride of Frankenstein to be the second movie out the gate, with The Mummy having kicked things off in summer 2017. As we all know, the Dark Universe failed to launch, and while Universal has pushed ahead with standalone movies centered on its iconic monsters, Bride of Frankenstein’s fate has been shrouded in uncertainty.

Back in February, it was reported that Oscar-winning producer Amy Pascal was looking for a way to bring Bride of Frankenstein to the big screen. As it turns out, the current health crisis has breathed new life into the project, with producer David Koepp, who wrote the Bride of Frankenstein script, revealing:

That was one thing I did during quarantine – I brought back Bride of Frankenstein into a place where I kind of always wanted it to be. Universal was very gracious to let me try again. Because they had geared up and shut down famously in the Dark Universe fiasco. Well, not fiasco, but disappointment. So I have a version now and they have a version that we all really like. I think they’re talking to directors now.

Originally slated to come out in February 2019, Beauty and the Beast director Bill Condon was tapped to helm Bride of Frankenstein, with Angelina Jolie being lined up for the eponymous role and Javier Bardem playing Frankenstein’s monster. Things got far enough along in the creative process that sets started being constructed, but by October 2017, just four months after The Mummy failed to critically or commercially impress, Bride of Frankenstein’s release date was pulled and the Dark Universe shared continuity was scrapped.

Now though, it’s looking like Bride of Frankenstein is back on track to actually happening, per David Koepp’s comments to Collider. As for the scope of the feature, here’s what Koepp had to say when asked if Bride of Frankenstein would work off of the same kind “cost effective, highly profitable Blumhouse model” used on this year’s The Invisible Man, Koepp responded:

It’s not the great big, $150 million extravaganza with giant movie stars. It’s not as scaled down as Invisible Man but much more reasonable, doable thing, with, I think, a really cool idea and it’s all present day.

So now we know that while Bill Condon was originally selected to direct Bride of Frankenstein, a new filmmaker will be taking over that project, though it's hard to say who that will end up being. In the meantime, considering how well The Invisible Man performed, going a similar small-scale route with Bride of Frankenstein seems like the right call.

Bride of Frankenstein is just one of many Universal Monsters-related projects in development post-Dark Universe fall. Other include a James Wan-produced Frankenstein-like movie, a new Dracula movie directed by Karyn Kusama and a Wolfman reboot that will star Ryan Gosling.

Keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more updates concerning Bride of Frankenstein, including which new director is ultimately brought on board.

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Adam Holmes
Senior Content Producer

Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.