The Bride of Frankenstein is making a comeback thanks to Scarlett Johansson. The Avengers: Endgame star has signed on to play the leading role in Bride for Apple and A24. Johansson will also produce the movie, which is a new take on the classic character. Interestingly, this does not appear to be tied at all to the version Universal has been working on for several years, originally as a part of the failed Dark Universe.
According to a new report, Apple and A24 have partnered again for Bride. The two previously worked together on Billy Murray and Rashida Jones’ On the Rocks, which debuts this weekend. Scarlett Johansson will produce alongside Jonathan Lia. Sebastian Lelio (A Fantastic Woman, Gloria}) is set to direct. A logline has also been revealed, which reads as follows.
“A woman created to be an ideal wife, the singular obsession of a brilliant entrepreneur, rejects her creator, and is forced to flee her confined existence, confronting a world that sees her as a monster. It is on the run that she finds her true identity, her surprising power, and the strength to remake herself as her own creation.”
The Bride of Frankenstein originally made it to the big screen in 1935 in the classic monster movie directed by James Whale. It was a sequel to 1931’s Frankenstein and remains in high regard to this day. Universal had been trying to crack the code for some time on a remake, with Bill Condon and, more recently, David Koep, attached to direct. Angelina Jolie had been eyed for the lead role. Johansson had this to say in a statement.
“It is long overdue for Bride to step out of the shadow of her male counterpart and stand alone. Working alongside Rebecca Angelo and Lauren Schuker Blum, Sebastian and I are extremely excited to emancipate this classic anti-heroine and reanimate her story to reflect the change we see today.”
In another interesting wrinkle, Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo are writing the script. Blum and Angelo also recently wrote the new Wolfman movie, which has Ryan Gosling attached to star. That movie is being produced by Blumhouse for Universal and comes hot on the heels of the success of The Invisible Man earlier this year. Bride, on the other hand, looks to be its own thing independent of Universal’s current, filmmaker-driven plans for its classic monster franchise. Tom Cruise’s 2017 The Mummy both started and ended the Dark Universe, which was intended to be the Marvel Cinematic Universe of monster movies. That didn’t exactly pan out.
Scarlett Johansson starred in last year’s Avengers: Endgame, which became the highest-grossing movie in history. The actress is also set to reprise the role of Natasha Romanoff once more in Black Widow, which was originally supposed to arrive this year but has since been pushed to 2021. We’ll be sure to keep you posted as further details on Bride are made available. This news comes to us via The Hollywood Reporter.
