Let’s face it — we’ve seen pretty much every which way vampires can be done over the last half-dozen or so years on movie screens and television screens. We’ve seen good vampires, bad vampires, horror vampires, sexy vampires, studly vampires, ugly vampires, funny vampires — you name it, it’s been at your multiplex or on cable. In fact, I’ve considered pitching all of my stored-up movie ideas to some studios after changing all of my characters to vampires in order to help my chances. But perhaps I should go for Frankenstein instead — after all, there are a number of Frankenstein movies in the works, so perhaps the era of the vampire is giving way to the era of Frankenstein?
Deadline is reporting that the latest Frankenstein project is an adaptation of the novel The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein from RT Features, which will be adapted by David Auburn (Proof). Essentially it is a “Victor Frankenstein: Origins” picture, which really hasn’t been done before (but I can’t imagine how exciting a Frankenstein film without Frankenstein’s Monster could be). Then, Deadline is also reporting that another “Victor Frankenstein: Origins” film based on the as-yet-unreleased novel This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein by Kenneth Oppel, with writer Jacob Aaron Estes (Mean Creek) and director Matt Reeves (Let Me In) for Summit Entertainment.
But that’s just the latest Frankenstein news. Some other Frankenstein films in development are:
1) A remake of the 1931 original from Universal, as yet another attempt to re-start its “Universal Monsters” series after the lukewarm reception of Van Helsing and The Wolfman. Guillermo del Toro is involved. so there’s hope!
2) The boringly-titled Frankenstein, a modern-day version of the story based on an idea by Craig Fernandez (From Prada to Nada), is being worked on at Columbia Pictures.
3) Guitar hero Slash and his new Slasher Films company are working on an adaptation of the Wake The Dead graphic novel by Steve Niles (30 Days of Night), which is again a modern-day version of the story, with Victor Frankenstein as a college student.
Let’s be honest — as awesome as Frankenstein is, the character isn’t as versatile as a generic vampire. Since most of these projects overlap in terms of plot, it’s likely that many of them won’t end up going into production. But hey, anything that weeds out the many crappy vampire movies from the few good ones is a-okay in my book!
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