Movies
‘The Bride’ – Maggie Gyllenhaal’s ‘Bride of Frankenstein’ Remake Set to Begin Production Soon
While Guillermo del Toro is hard at work on his new Frankenstein adaptation, director Maggie Gyllenhaal appears to be gearing up to begin production on The Bride, a Bride of Frankenstein update, according to the Production List.
The listing confirms previous reports that The Bride will star Penelope Cruz as the Bride, Christian Bale as Frankenstein, and Peter Sarsgaard as a detective.
It doesn’t include plot details, however, beyond “a horror thriller, about the Bride of Frankenstein.” So, it remains unclear whether The Bride will be a more faithful period horror remake or a give a contemporary spin on the classic horror movie.
In the original 1935 film from director James Whale, “After recovering from injuries sustained in the mob attack upon himself and his creation, Dr. Frankenstein (Colin Clive) falls under the control of his former mentor, Dr. Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger), who insists the now-chastened doctor resume his experiments in creating new life. Meanwhile, the Monster (Boris Karloff) remains on the run from those who wish to destroy him without understanding that his intentions are generally good despite his lack of socialization and self-control.”
Also new is that The Bride‘s cast will include Jessie Buckley (Men, I’m Thinking of Ending Things), though no details on her character have been revealed as of yet.
Bale most recently starred in the Netflix period horror movie The Pale Blue Eye, centered around a young Edgar Allan Poe. The Bride would be Gyllenhaal’s sophomore directorial effort; the actor-turned-director made her debut with 2021’s The Lost Daughter starring Olivia Colman.
Various plans for a Bride of Frankenstein remake have been announced over the years, more recently with the failed Dark Universe and A24’s long-dormant Bride. One thing is for certain, though, Frankenstein is on trend if last year’s horror offerings are any indication. At least that gives us plenty of options to help with the anticipation while we wait to discover more about Gyllenhaal’s take on the Universal Classic Monster.
Production is currently scheduled to begin this March.
It’s been eight years since Ari Aster came onto the scene and helped usher in a new wave of horror with Hereditary, one of the rare horror movies from the past ten years that still seems to come up in conversation every single week. And it’s back in the conversation this week, with Ari Aster revealing at an event that he’s already written a prequel to Hereditary!
Ari Aster was on hand at the American Cinematheque for Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair last week, a Los Angeles festival that screened all of Aster’s movies to date. The website Gold Derby reports that Aster revealed the Hereditary prequel script during a Q&A at the event, and you can watch the full Q&A conversation below for confirmation on the website’s report.
“I wrote a prequel to this,” Aster told the crowd, referring to Hereditary. “It never feels like the right time to do it. It’s a prequel, not a sequel so I don’t know where this goes.”
Would a potential Hereditary prequel dig deeper into the mythology of demon king Paimon? Unfortunately, Aster provides no further details on his prequel approach at this time.
Aster said of Hereditary during the same Q&A, “I was just trying to make a really good horror movie.” I think most horror fans would agree that he more than accomplished that goal, and the past eight years have proven that Hereditary is an enduring classic of its generation.
We celebrated the fifth anniversary of Hereditary here on BD back in 2023.
Ron Breton wrote, “Hereditary offers a similar emotional resonance to this new generation of horror – my generation of horror– as movie-goers in the seventies when they first saw Exorcist. Much like Aster’s film, we see the incomprehensible evil wear the face of a young girl; the victim of a raw deal she had no say in, as it tears a family to its core. Sure, both films offer so many terrifying visuals that can make the hair stand up on anyone’s neck – but it also depicts intense relationships and emotions that are tangible. Real. Familiar.”
“In that familiarity lies the uncanny, ready to rear its ugly head and force us to confront thoughts and horrors laying dormant and clawing at our psyche,” Breton continued his 5th anniversary celebration of Hereditary. “And it doesn’t matter if it’s been five or fifty years. These horrors are always there, as we become pawns in its horrible, hopeless machine.”
Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff, Ann Dowd, and Milly Shapiro star in Hereditary. In the film, “A grieving family is haunted by tragic and disturbing occurrences.”
That’s putting it mildly, eh?!
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