Guillermo del Toro ‘Frankenstein’ Casting Rumors Already Have Me Screaming
I swear this came straight off of my mood board.
Movie maker Guillermo del Toro is one of the best monster creators of our time. His creature love story, The Shape of Water, even won an Academy Award for Best Picture. With his recent deal with Netflix, we del Toro fans have already gotten two great projects: Cabinet of Curiosities and Pinocchio. The next official project has not been announced, but between del Toro’s hints and a few other clues, many on the internet think it must be his long-awaited version of Frankenstein.
For at least a decade, del Toro has talked about wanting to remake the classic monster story. Although the Paramount Pictures version of Frankenstein and his monster are still under copyright, the original novel by Mary Shelley is a public domain property, so any studio could make it happen. Del Toro’s vision may come to reality sooner than previously imagined, as casting and shooting rumors started swirling. One of those rumors is that Oscar Isaac will star as Dr. Frankenstein and Andrew Garfield will play the monster.
Shelley, del Toro, and MCU Boys—Oh my!
Yes, this may all be a cruel rumor, but I am screaming over this even as a possibility. When it was published in 1818, Frankenstein became one of the first horror novels and arguably started the science-fiction genre. Since then it has been made into countless movies, plays, and even parodies. But few of those have ever captured the real horror of Shelley’s story—the hubris of a privileged man. Many retellings of the story focused on the scariness of the monster. The monster never wanted to be created, was abandoned by his creator, and was left alone in the world. All while wealthy Frankenstein (who never even finished medical school) runs away from the problems he literally created while insulting the creature who had to teach himself everything while being shunned by society.
With del Toro at the helm of this project, I trust him to find more of the original story to weave into his version. So often he makes us sympathize with his monsters rather than just being scared by them and that is the perfect take for the monster of Frankenstein. I already have a lot of feelings about this story in general, but with Oscar Isaac as Frankenstein and Andrew Garfield as the monster, I may be overwhelmed by my feelings. Garfield has been on a comeback role since reprising his take on Spider-Man in Spider-Man: No Way Home and I love that for him. He would do so well as the monster. He’s complex and brooding while trying to find someone to treat him with humanity. Oscar Isaac can literally play any part he wants to. After seeing him absolutely kill it as three separate characters in Moon Knight, I know he would make me fall in love with a fictional character that I hate. So can we get the official announcement on this? I need to start planning my life around it.
(via Giant Freaking Robot, featured image: Netflix)
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