'Bride Of Frankenstein' Reboot Still Being Stitched Together At Universal

Universal's Bride of Frankenstein reboot isn't quite dead yet. At one point, the film was supposed to be part of Universal's Dark Universe – but then that entire idea was chased away by torch-wielding villagers. Now, Universal is taking a different, and so far better, approach to reviving their classic monsters. They already released The Invisible Man with Blumhouse, and have several other monster-related titles in the works. And according to screenwriter David Koepp, Bride of Frankenstein is one of them.

Back when the Dark Universe was still a thing, Bride of Frankenstein was supposed to follow-up Tom Cruise's The Mummy. Bill Condon was set to direct, Javier Bardem was set to star, and David Koepp was tackling the script. Then the Dark Universe came crashing down, and everything went out the window. Since then, Universal has found success working with Blumhouse on The Invisible Man, and reboots of The Wolf Man, Dracula, and more, are all in the works now. And it looks like they haven't pulled the plug on Bride of Frankenstein just yet.

While it doesn't seem like Bill Condon and Javier Bardem are still involved, David Koepp is still working on the script. Speaking with Collider, Koepp said:

"That was one thing I did during quarantine – I brought back Bride of Frankenstein into a place where I kind of always wanted it to be. Universal was very gracious to let me try again. Because they had geared up and shut down famously in the Dark Universe fiasco. Well, not fiasco, but disappointment. So I have a version now and they have a version that we all really like. I think they're talking to directors now."

Koepp added: "It's not the great big, $150 million extravaganza with giant movie stars. It's not as scaled-down as Invisible Man but much more reasonable, doable thing, with, I think, a really cool idea and it's all present day."

The original Bride of Frankenstein was released in 1935, and is often hailed as one of the best horror movies ever made. After the success of Frankenstein, director James Whale was able to take his sequel into a stranger, funnier, campier direction, resulting in one of the most memorable entries in the original Universal Monsters line-up.

I like much of Koepp's work – his Stir of Echoes is a severely underrated ghost movie – so I'm curious to see what he has in store for Bride. At one point, Angelina Jolie was mentioned as possibly starring in this film as the Bride herself. We'll have to wait and see if that still happens now.