For a brief moment last year, it seemed like Shawn Levy was really intent on making "Frankenstein" his next picture. But as these things sometimes go, the pieces didn't come together and he wound up shooting "The Internship" with Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson this summer instead. But "Frankenstein" is still alive, and the project's studio now has a new man tasked to put its nuts and bolts together. (Ha.)
"Lucky Number Slevin" helmer Paul McGuigan (who is probably best known in some circles for his Brit crime flick "Gangster No. 1") will take on the monster movie for Fox. Penned by Max Landis ("Chronicle"), the actual content of the reboot is being kept under wraps but it's said that the story will be about "friendship and redemption." Because the first thing we want to know about a monster movie is what its themes are, right?
The choice of McGuigan is odd considering at one time the studio was trying to land guys like Paul Greengrass and David Yates. And while those directors usually command bigger budgets, you won't be surprised to learn that McGuigan indicates that his "Frankenstein" will be coming in at a much, much lower budget.
No word yet on when this will shoot, but it will mark McGuigan's first feature since 2009's "Push." Not that he's been sitting around idle — in the interim he shot "Sherlock" with Benedict Cumberbatch. So, geek cred? Yeah, he's got it. [Variety]
'friendship and redemption'? every f*cking film's about that. those arent themes.
McGuigan is really good news for me, mostly because he directed some of the best Sherlock episodes, including the amazing season 2 retelling of The Hounds of Baskerville ! Plus : maybe horror enthusiast/Hammer Films scholar Mark Gatiss will work on this too. Suddenly I really care about that movie. As long as they don't go for that horrible contemporary "period/actioner" trend (which would be stupid considering the upcoming I, Frankenstein will probably do this)….