Bill Condon confirms ‘Bride of Frankenstein’ prepping, filming in London, starts in February
While promoting the Director’s Extended Edition of Dreamgirls is currently available on Blu-ray and Digital HD director Bill Condon discussed a ton of projects, but most notably, the start of Bride of Frankenstein.
During the interview with Collider, the Beauty and the Beast filmmaker dropped some big news for Universal’s Dark Universe: “I’m in London because we started prepping Bride of Frankenstein.”
In fact, Condon confirms the filming in London: “We’re going to do it almost all in London.”
Condon discussed the long hiring and developmental process.
“I heard about a year and a half ago maybe and was always hoping that if it became real that I could at least take a look at it and talk about it, because I thought about it across the years and so yes, luckily then they just felt they were going to go ahead and they did approach me. It was right as things were … exactly what you were hoping would happen, did happen. In terms of all that, that James Whale movie obviously is in the pantheon for many people and I’m one of them. I love that film so much so I do feel again the responsibility I felt to Dreamgirls, the one you feel to Beauty and the Beast. I feel the same responsibility to what Whale created.
“What I love about David Koepp’s script is that he turns everything on its head. This is Adam before Eve. The Bride comes first. It’s, in its own way—we all know the Bride exists for only 10 minutes in the Whale movie. She’s there and then the movie’s over. I keep thinking in a way this is at least a tribute to what Whale might have done if he’d made a third Frankenstein movie and he’d done it in the 21st century. I think there are just things about the sensibility of that movie and also his genius in solving that basic problem that I think you still see when people approach monster movies now, which is you’ve got to really create a monster that you’re afraid of, you’re terrified of, but also you can identify with. That line was never walked better than by James Whale.”
Javier Bardem is tapped to play the Monster and Condon was prompted to address other casting: “We shoot from February to June and I think we’re going to pin down casting very soon, we hope.”
Full interview at Collider HERE
Despite modest reviews and a U.S. box office opening of less than $32 million, The Mummy earned $409 million and kept the hopes for more monster films coming.
Bride of Frankenstein will open Feb. 14, 2019
