‘Beauty & The Beast’ Director Bill Condon In Talks to Direct Universal’s ‘Bride of Frankenstein’

Just as the news has broken that Beauty & the Beast has crossed the historic $1 billion mark at the box office, it was announced by Deadline that director Bill Condon is in talks to helm one of Universal’s upcoming monster movie remakes: The Bride of Frankenstein.  David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Mission Impossible) wrote the most recent version of the screenplay.

The original 1935 film was directed by James Whale, who also directed original Frankenstein (1931) and The Invisible Man (1933), as well as the 1936 film adaptation of Broadway musical Show Boat. It was partially written by playwright/screenwriter John L Balderston, who helped Universal on other original monster films such as Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932), and Dracula’s Daughter (1936). Bride of Frankenstein starred Elsa Lanchester and Boris Karloff, as the bride of Frankenstein and Frankenstein respectively.

Universal has sought to remake the film at various points. In 1991, Martin Scorsese was interested in directing television remake. Then in 2009, Ron Howard’s production company Imagine Productions was in talks with director Neil Burger, writer Dirk Wittenborn, and producer Brian Grazer to create a remake. In 2015, David Koepp was finally approached to write the remake.

This version will be produced by writer/producer Alex Kurtzman (Transformers, Star Trek) and Chris Morgan (The Fate of the Furious). Kurtzman and Morgan were asked in 2014 to develop all the remakes of their classic monster movies. Universal is currently at different stages of production on the multiple monster movies, including the upcoming summer release of The Mummy starring Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe. There are also versions of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, Dracula, The Wolf-Man, and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in the works.

Bill Condon received critical acclaim when he wrote the 2002 film adaptation of musical Chicago, which starred Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta Jones, and Richard Gere, and further acclaim when he wrote/directed the 2007 musical Dreamgirls, starring Beyonce, Jennifer Hudson, and Eddie Murphy. Look for The Greatest Showman starring Hugh Jackman, with a screenplay written by Condon, in theaters Christmas Day.