Guillermo Del Toro eyes another Universal monster adaptation with star-studded Frankenstein

Although Shelley penned the famed sci-fi novel in 1818, the story’s characters became a pivotal Universal I.P. with James Whale’s 1931 adaptation starring Boris Karloff. Along with Dracula (1931), Frankenstein laid the foundation for what would become known as Universal Classic Monsters.

Del Toro previously offered his own spin on the tale of Universal’s Creature From The Black Lagoon with The Shape Of Water, starring Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Shannon, and the famed Doug Jones. Del Toro’s Best Picture winner offered an unconventional take on the classic monster tale, as he’d long imagined a world where the Gillman finds love.

“I’ve had this movie in my head since I was 6, not as a story but as an idea,” he told Los Angeles Times in 2017. “When I saw the creature swimming under Julie Adams [in Creature From the Black Lagoon], I thought three things: I thought, ‘Hubba-hubba.’ I thought, ‘This is the most poetic thing I’ll ever see.’ I was overwhelmed by the beauty. And the third thing I thought is, ‘I hope they end up together.’”

Maybe del Toro’s version of Frankenstein will see the damned monster actually find companionship. We could even avoid him killing himself and his bride in a fiery blaze due after confronting the horrors of their own inhumanity. However, we do hope there’s a faithful recreation of the scene in which the monster smokes for the first time as seen in The Bride Of Frankenstein.

We’re certainly living in an age of renewed interest in the Universal Classic Monsters, starting with The Invisible Man in 2020. Over the last year, new adaptations of Dracula, Frankenstein, and even Wolfman have entered various stages of development, with del Toro’s vision joining the bunch.