So how many Frankenstein movies are in development in Hollywood? Well Guillermo del Toro has a take; “Limitless” helmer Neil Burger has a remake of “Bride of Frankenstein” at Universal; “Tomorrow, When the War Began” director Stuart Beattie is attached to the comic book adaptation “I, Frankenstein”; Summit has “This Dark Endeavor,” a collaboration between “Mean Creek” writer Jacob Estes and “Let Me In” director Matt Reeves; and Fox just hired Max Landis for another version of the movie monster. But it looks like an indie production will beat all the major players to the big screen and it will star an actor we haven’t seen in a long, long time.
Variety reports that Haley Joel Osment — better known as the kid who could see dead people in M. Night Shyamalan‘s “The Sixth Sense” — will star in “Wake the Dead.” Based on the graphic novels by Steven Niles, adapted by Jay Russell (“Ladder 49,” “My Dog Skip“) and Jim Hart (“Hook,” “Bram Stoker’s Dracula“) with the former directing, the film is a contemporary re-telling of the tale with Osment playing Victor Franklin, “a college student experimenting with reversing death.” Things presumably go awry.
We have to say, the talent behind this isn’t bad so we’re cautiously curious to see how this comes together. And certainly a movie produced by former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash can’t go wrong, can it? Filming will begin this fall, but don’t expect any of those other Frankenstein movies to fall to the wayside because of this. As Snow White and “Immortals“/”300: Battle Of Artemisia“/”Wrath of the Titans” have shown, there is no idea in Hollywood that can’t be beaten to death.
Did you know that Haley Joel Osment is in a new movie? He’s starring in Montana Amazon – The Adventures of the Dunderheads…alongside Academy Award and Golden Globe winner, Olympia Dukakis and Alison Brie (of NBC’s Community and AMC’s Mad Men). The next screening of the film is at the Rhode Island International Film Festival on August 14th, 2011 at 2:15 PM. Osment is playing a cute, but dumb, accidentally friend killing, teenager – Womple. Montana Amazon marks Osment’s first film since graduating from NYU’s Tisch School of Theatre.
About Montana Amazon:
Winning Best Feature at the Big Apple Film Festival, Montana Amazon is the story of the Dunderheads, an eccentric Montana family, who have lived in the mountains for far too long. After teenaged Womple Dunderhead (played by Haley Joel Osment) accidentally kills a friend, matriarch Grandma Ira (played by Olympia Dukakis) flees to Canada with her two wildly dysfunctional teenage grandkids, Womple and Ella (played by Alison Brie). Held together by blood, this ridiculous threesome “is not quite with the ways of the world” as Ella says. Ira is aiming for Canada, but as the road signs reveal, they are in fact heading south to Mexico. Through a typical series of Dunderhead mishaps, Montana Amazon – The Adventures of the Dunderheads is a film based on all the traditional family values – power mad parents, sadistic siblings, horny teenagers, and very strange secrets. For more information about Montana Amazon – The Adventures of the Dunderheads and the upcoming screening, visit http://MontanaAmazon.com/.
GREAT Frankenstein has been ignored for too many years, I say the more the better.