The story of Mary Shelley’sFrankensteinis getting reimagined as a bizarre love story. PerDeadline,Zelda Williamswill make her feature-length directorial debut withLisa Frankenstein, a “zomb-com” written by Diablo Cody (Jennifer’s Body,Tully) about a teenager inadvertently resurrecting a corpse during a rainstorm - and then making the best of the situation. Its two leads have also been set as Kathryn Newton (Big Little Lies,The Society) and Cole Sprouse (Riverdale,The Suite Life of Zack & Cody) will be leading the cast, and the plan is to start shooting the feature later this summer.Cody will also produceLisa Frankensteinalongside Mason Novick for MXN Entertainment as well as Jeff Lampert. Michelle Momplaisir will serve as creative executive on behalf of Focus Features. The film doesn’t yet have an official release date. You can read a synopsis for the feature below.
Set in 1989, the film follows an unpopular high schooler who accidentally re-animates a handsome Victorian corpse during a lightning storm and starts to rebuild him into the man of her dreams using the broken tanning bed in her garage.
Speaking about the project on Twitter, Williams noted, “I know Hollywood gets a bad rep for regurgitating sequels and remakes and reboots over and over and over… and yeah, it totally does that! But it’s also finally letting me make the most bonkers, wonderful zombie script I’ve ever read, and for that, I will be forever grateful!”
In a follow-up tweet, she added, “Also, for anyone coming here to be like ‘THIS is your first feature?!’, it wasn’t meant to be. I had three films fall apart before this, because movies often do. It was discouraging, to say the least. But the fact this one survived and THRIVED to be my first? A f***ing gift.”
Related:The Bride of Frankenstein Remake Writer Reveals Details of Universal’s Canceled Film
Frankenstein’s Monster Has Long Been an Inspiration in Horror
There have been getting movies made about Frankenstein’s monster for well over a century, as the character serves as one of the horror genre’s first and most well-known creatures. In more recent years, the story inspired the big budget filmVictor Frankensteinin 2015. An animated version of Frankenstein’s monster has also been appearing in theHotel Transylvaniamovies, including the fourth film,Hotel Transylvania: Transformania, which was released this year. Meanwhile, Rob Zombie’s reboot ofThe Munstersbrings back Herman Munster, another incarnation of Frankenstein’s monster, with Jeff Daniel Phillips in the role.
Universal Pictures has also recently been investing in rebooting the classic Universal Monsters following the success of Leigh Whannell’sThe Invisible Man. Other similar projects are in the works, including aWolf Manmovie starring Ryan Gosling. ABride of Frankensteinreboot was in the planning stages at one point, though that project has since been scrapped. Javier Bardem still hopes that movie gets back on track ashe wants to play the monsterif that film ends up getting made.
