SDCC 2015: ‘Victor Frankenstein’ detailed, ‘Sherlock’ influence and Boris Karloff look
Director Paul McGuigan previewed his upcoming film Victor Frankenstein had SDCC, saying that the point of view is something audiences haven’t seen before.
Victor Frankenstein is told from the hunchback’s point of view, a near intellectual equal to the scientist obsessed with bringing the dead back to life.
“When he meets Victor (James McAvoy), Igor (Daniel Radcliffe) starts out as a hunchback in the circus but he mends people’s bones and is knowledgeable about medical science and is treated like a freakish kid,” McGuigan explained. “And actually when Max [Landis] wrote the script, his influence was The Social Network, the idea of two men on the cusp of breakthrough technology and how this brings them together and bonds them and also rips them apart. And he immediately saw a correlation with 1860 London on the cusp of change as well.”
The director then drew comparisons to BBC’s Sherlock, explaining Holmes and Frankenstein are both genius sociopaths befriended by two other lost souls, Watson and Igor, who are loyal but honest.
“Daniel’s the audience, the way that Martin Freeman is as Watson. They tell Victor and Sherlock what needs to be said: ‘You’re an asshole, mate.’ Benedict [Cumberbatch] gets the showy part and he’s great and, in a way, James is like that as well.”
Frankenstein’s back story is key on building what Mary Shelley started.
“James plays it with layers and also I think that Max’s script taps into things that a modern audience will understand about the morality and life after death. And Andrew Scott [Sherlock‘s Moriarty] plays a police inspector who also questions Victor’s ethics. He doesn’t say anything wrong. He actually has a good comeback…”
“We also had to figure out the science,” the director continued.
“I wanted it to look real and looked at thunderstorms on YouTube. We built this 80-foot tower for the castle; we swing the monster all the way up and we see the physicality of it. There’s also the physicality of James and Daniel. The two of them are very physical actors. These guys don’t walk in a room — they barge. I wanted it to be a lot more physical than on the page being thrown around a lot because they’re fighting for their lives creating a monster.”
McGuigan credits Sherlock showrunner Steven Moffat with inspiring his final look. “He said, ‘Please promise me one thing: Don’t deviate [from Karloff]. That silhouette, that thing, that’s what it’s all about.’ He’s right. We made our own version but we didn’t deviate.”
