While the Universal Monsters are the most colorful and unique characters in the history of horror, their stories aren’t easy to tell. Not only have their tales been told hundreds of times, but they’ve been used as inspiration in hundreds more. How can you do something different? One answer is to politically charge the story with modern issues and give strong social commentary.
Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp is doing just that with his interpretation of Bride of Frankenstein, revealing that his Bride will be the protagonist in a feminist tale where men attempt to “control” the monster.
“It’s one of my favorite scripts I’ve written in years because if you reimagine the ‘Frankenstein’ story, it gets into so many issues of men trying to feel dominant over women,” Koepp explains to Collider. “To create someone who then says, ‘You don’t own me,’ it becomes a tale of liberation. It was great. It was really fun, and I hope it gets going soon because I think it’d make for a great movie.
The 1935 Bride follows on immediately from the events of the original Frankenstein. In the film, a chastened Henry Frankenstein abandons his plans to create life, only to be tempted and finally coerced by his old mentor Dr. Pretorius, along with threats from the Monster, into constructing a mate for him (the Monster). (Wiki)
Koepp talks about how liberating it was to write such a character:
“How fun it is and how liberating it is. Narratively and stylistically to write a character who’s dead. She’s not a zombie. She’s a super-intelligent creature, but she’s dead, and that changes a person’s perspective.”
When asked if this movie is meant to be more in line with other Universal Monster movies or if it has the freedom to be its own thing, Koepp replied:
“You get some of both, and I think they’re figuring that out as they go. I was in touch with the other people who were making ‘Mummy’ and in touch with Universal and getting a sense of what they’re doing, because they can’t be wholly different movies, but each one is characterized by the personality of its creature. So the stories are dictated by the creature. In ours, the Bride is essentially a sympathetic figure. This tragic, hunted figure. And obviously the Mummy is a very bad entity that must be stopped. That’s not us. The troublemakers are the ones who would try to control her. To answer your question, we’re all from the same tree, but different kinds of fruit.
Koepp is as exciting as a writer as they get. Proof along is in his adaptation of Jurassic Park, which shows he knows how to have character interact directly with the monsters, while also adding some emotional characteristics to them as well.
There’s currently no release date on Bride of Frankenstein, while The Mummy is set to open June 9, 2017.