Mary Shelley’s gothic horror novel Frankenstein has long captured Hollywood’s fascination, dating back to Universal Pictures’ first 1930s adaptations starring Boris Karloff. But on the eve of the Academy Awards, there seems to be renewed interest in the more than two-centuries-old monster.
In February, Diablo Cody’s gender-swapped Lisa Frankenstein wrapped its “coming-of-rage” story in bubblegum-pink sensibilities. Meanwhile, Yorgos Lanthimos’s Oscar-nominated film Poor Things sets its Frankenstein tale in 19th-century Victorian England. The director Guillermo del Toro, a legend in the monster genre, has his own interpretation—Frankenstein—in the works for Netflix, with an estimated 2025 release date. And this month production is starting on Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Bride of Frankenstein adaptation for Warner Bros., starring Christian Bale.
