Universal’s Monster Universe has just added another A-lister to its lineup of creature films. According to Variety, Academy Award winner Javier Bardem (The Gunman) is in talks to star as Frankenstein in Universal’s soon-to-be-launched classic monster movie series.
A year ago, Universal brought in Alex Kurtzman (Star Trek) and Chris Morgan to help develop a shared cinematic monster universe incorporating rebooted versions of the original creature classics. The first feature in the series will be The Mummy – to be released on June 9, 2017 – starring Sofia Boutella (Kingsman: The Secret Service), Tom Cruise (Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation), and Academy Award winner Russell Crowe (The Nice Guys) as Dr. Jekyll. Another project, The Invisible Man starring Johnny Depp, is scheduled for release in 2018.
It is not yet known in which monster film Bardem will be introduced as Frankenstein. The character may then be spun off to Universal’s feature currently in development, The Bride of Frankenstein, which is looking to a 2019 release date.
Bardem was most recently seen in Sean Penn’s humanitarian romance The Last Face opposite Academy Award winner Charlize Theron (The Huntsman: Winter’s War), which premiered at Cannes earlier this year. He will be in next year’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, and in new Darren Aronofsky film, untitled at this point, with Academy Award winner Jennifer Lawrence (X-Men: Apocalypse) and Domhnall Gleeson (The Revenant).
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