Maggie Gyllenhaal's Frankenstein Movie Has Gathered One Of The Best Casts Of 2024
It's official: Franken-fever has gripped the entertainment industry! Up first is one of /Film's most anticipated movies of 2024: "Lisa Frankenstein," director Zelda Williams and writer Diablo Cody's teen horror rom-com starring Kathryn Newton and Jughead Jones himself, "Riverdale" alum Cole Sprouse, as a reanimated corpse. Elsewhere, Guillermo del Toro is on the verge of finally realizing his long-unfulfilled dream of adapting Mary Shelley's gothic literary sci-fi horror masterpiece itself, "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus," having recently recruited the star of another popular chaotic young adult series, "Euphoria" actor Jacob Elordi, to portray his own Monster.
Last, but certainly not least, you might have heard rumblings throughout the past several months about actor-filmmaker Maggie Gyllenhaal developing a "Frankenstein" movie of her own. Deadline reports the project is now formally moving forward at Warner Bros., with production set to begin by the first quarter of 2024. Contrary to previous rumors, however, this isn't strictly a re-imagining of director James Whale's black-and-white 1935 classic "Bride of Frankenstein" (which makes sense; one imagines Universal might have something to say about one of its biggest competitors remaking one of its most beloved monster horror films). In fact, it sounds decidedly different, as you can see from the following logline:
A lonely Frankenstein travels to 1930s Chicago to seek the aide of a Dr. Euphronius in creating a companion for himself. The two reinvigorate a murdered young woman and the Bride is born. She is beyond what either of them intended, igniting a combustible romance, the attention of the police and a wild and radical social movement.
That synopsis also sounds more than a little similar to another "Frankenstein" riff that's been making waves of late. But before we get into that, let's talk about the awesome cast Gyllenhaal has assembled.
The Lost Daughter reunion you've been waiting for
Gyllenhaal made quite the splash with her impressive directing debut on "The Lost Daughter," a film about a middle-aged professor who gets caught up in a bit of drama involving a younger woman while on vacation, leading her to reflect upon her troubled past. Jessie Buckley, who did an excellent job playing the younger version of the movie's protagonist in flashbacks, is now reuniting with Gyllenhaal for her Frankenstein movie, with Buckley reportedly set to portray the film's version of the Bride. Christian Bale, Annette Bening, Penelope Cruz, and Peter Sarsgaard (who's also married to Gyllenhaal) will further round the horror pic's pretty awe-inspiring ensemble.
If there's a downside to all this, it's that Gyllenhaal's project has the misfortune of arriving on the heels of "Poor Things," a period movie that is also about a recently deceased young woman who's brought back to life through Science™ and stirs up trouble when she refuses to conform to the expectations of the repressive, patriarchal society surrounding her. That's not to suggest Gyllenhaal's movie is going to look or feel remotely anything like Yorgos Lanthimos' critically acclaimed dark sci-fi comedy. (Do anyone's movies actually look or feel like Yorgos Lanthimos' work?) Still, it feels like the pair are inevitably going to be compared, whether that's fair or not.
We'll keep you posted on Maggie Gyllenhaal's "Frankenstein" movie (and all the other Franken-films in the works, for that matter).