An adaptation of the classic Mary Shelley novel Frankenstein has long been a dream project for director Guillermo del Toro, the filmmaker with such credits as Pan’s Labyrinth, The Shape of Water, Hellboy, and Blade II. He’s been talking about it for at least 17 years – and now he’s actually making it! After previous attempts to get the project going fell through, Netflix stepped up to let del Toro make the Frankenstein movie he’s been dreaming of. They haven’t announced a release date for the film yet, but while we wait for that news to come along, here’s Everything We Know About Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein:
LONG ROAD TO PRODUCTION
Del Toro has named Frankenstein as his favorite novel, and in 2007, he told us that the project he “would kill to make” is a faithful “Miltonian tragedy” version of Frankenstein. He said that he had read the script Frank Darabont wrote for the 1994 film Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and it was “pretty much perfect,” but that Darabont’s perfection didn’t make it to the screen in the Kenneth Branagh-directed movie. Given that del Toro was feeling so passionate about the material in ’07, it’s surprising that that was also the year when he turned down Universal’s offer to take over their classic Monster properties for an early iteration of what became the failed attempt to create a Dark Universe with 2017’s The Mummy. Speaking with TimesTalks in 2017, del Toro revealed, “I’ve said no to things that are enormous and I’ve never looked back. The only time I repent I didn’t do something was in 2007 when Universal, in an incredibly gentle and beautiful manner said, ‘Do you want to take over the Monster Universe?’ And they gave me the reins of several properties, and I didn’t do it. That I repent. So this is a confessional moment, I repent. That’s the only thing.” His longtime producing partner J. Miles Dale later confirmed, “At one time, (del Toro) was going to do the Monster Universe with Universal — Frankenstein’s Bride, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Invisible Man, The Wolf Man — and he didn’t. We feel like Shape of Water was kind of a version of a creature. So now, here he is doing his own Monster Universe.“
Del Toro didn’t want to run the Dark Universe, but in 2008 he started putting together script notes and concept art for his Frankenstein adaptation. He told Empire, “What I’m trying to do is take the myth and do something with it, but combining elements of Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein without making it just a classical myth of the monster. The best moments in my mind of Frankenstein, of the novel, are yet to be filmed … The only guy that has ever nailed for me the emptiness, not the tragic, not the Miltonian dimension of the monster, but the emptiness is Christopher Lee in the Hammer films, where he really looks like something obscenely alive. Boris Karloff has the tragedy element nailed down but there are so many versions, including that great screenplay by Frank Darabont that was ultimately not really filmed.” There were times when del Toro said the adaptation might need to cover two or three films, due to the complexity of the book and its shifting perspectives.
His first choice to play Frankenstein’s Monster was frequent collaborator Doug Jones, who has delivered creature performances in most of the director’s films. At one point, the project made it deep enough into pre-production that Jones was able to see a bust of the monster design, which was inspired by Bernie Wrightson’s artwork in an illustrated adaptation of Shelley’s novel that Wrightson spent seven years working on. Jones told Collider, “My first thought is that I’m not the big, broad, big-boned lumbering Frankenstein that you have in mind. But it was told to me, Guillermo is a big fan of Bernie Wrightson, and a friend of Bernie Wrightson, and Bernie had illustrated a version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and all of the images of Frankenstein’s Monster in that, that’s what he was going to pattern my look after. Which was more emaciated, little skinnier, little more pathetic looking. And yet, had an unnatural physical prowess, an unnatural athleticness to him. He was sewn together with spare parts of a couple different bodies. Very bony face, long, stringy, drawn hair. I never went through a makeup test myself for it. But I did go to the creature shop, Spectral Motion, who was developing the look for him at the time… I was there for something else, and Mike Elizalde, the owner of the shop, said ‘I gotta show you something’. Then he unveiled a head and shoulders bust of me with this monster makeup built on it. It was like, honestly, my eyes welled up. It was so hauntingly beautiful, and it did pay reverence to Bernie Wrightson’s artwork and gave you a different-looking Frankenstein’s monster than what you’re used to.“
By 2013, del Toro was considering casting Benedict Cumberbatch (who was nearly in the director’s film Crimson Peak, but had to drop out and was replaced by Tom Hiddleston) as the monster. Cumberbatch had already played both the monster and Dr. Victor Frankenstein in Danny Boyle’s stage version of Frankenstein – but his casting in the del Toro version wasn’t to be. In 2014, del Toro admitted that Universal had talked to him about making Frankenstein (plus Bride of Frankenstein) for them “several times,” but he was hesitant because making his dream project was such a daunting task.
Then, in 2023, Netflix offered del Toro the chance to make Frankenstein for them. Having previously worked with the streaming service on his 2022 stop-motion adaptation of Pinocchio and the horror anthology Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, he decided to go ahead and team with Netflix to make his Frankenstein dream come true. Del Toro said, “It’s a movie I have been wanting to do for 50 years since I saw the first Frankenstein. I had an epiphany, and it’s basically a movie that required a lot of growth and a lot of tools that I couldn’t have done 10-20 years ago. Now I’m brave or crazy enough or something, and we’re gonna tackle it.“
J. Miles Dale said, “Nothing’s easy, and that one’s not going to be easy — it’s a big movie with a ship stuck in the ice and a ton of other things — but we’ve got a little bit of lead time on it, and we’re excited to get going.” Dale also said that del Toro and Frankenstein are a perfect match of filmmaker and subject matter, and suggested the film could be as deeply emotional as the book is. “In the last couple of films, certainly with Nightmare Alley and then with Pinocchio, we’ve dealt with the whole father-son relationship. And Guillermo and I both lost our fathers in the last few years. When you have a strong father figure, it’s a big part of our lives. This version of Frankenstein very much goes down that thematic road. So, I feel like this is the third film in Guillermo’s father trilogy. That’s exciting, and when you read the script, it’s very emotional and, of course, very iconic.” The film is even said to be going by the codename Prodigal Father.
STORY
We know that Mary Shelley’s novel told the story of the young student of science Victor Frankenstein, who creates a grotesque but sentient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. As mentioned, del Toro has described his approach to the material as a “Miltonian tragedy,” and he has said that he would like to deal with the complexities of the novel and its shifting viewpoints while blending elements of Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein. He has also said that his movie wouldn’t be a direct adaptation of the novel, but rather “an adventure story that involves the creature.” At another point in the development process, he was quoted as saying, “The only quality you can claim is faithfulness… It’s a very difficult, tricky slope. Because then anytime that you deviate from that, you’re betraying the very goal you submitted. I’m being very faithful to trying to encompass the whole narrative of the novel. I’m being very faithful in that I’m trying to capture the spirit of the novel, when I read it as a kid, and how it impacted me. I recognize that it’s both biography and prophecy about my life. It’s a very personal film. In many ways it’s the most personal film I’ll ever make, because my connection with the creature is very profound and deep and I don’t think there’s any other monster that has affected me as much.” So it sounds like he has considered different options over the years.
The version that made it into production might have the following logline: Set in Eastern Europe in the 19th Century, the story of Dr. Pretorius, who needs to track down Frankenstein’s monster- who is believed to have died in a fire forty years before–in order to continue the experiments of Dr. Frankenstein.
CAST
The cast del Toro has assembled for the film includes Oscar Isaac (Moon Knight), Mia Goth (Pearl), Jacob Elordi (Saltburn), Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds), Felix Kammerer (All Quiet on the Western Front), David Bradley (Hot Fuzz), and Charles Dance (Game of Thrones), with Ralph Ineson (The Witch) showing up for a pivotal cameo. At one point, Andrew Garfield (The Amazing Spider-Man) was in the cast, but he had to drop out and was replaced by Elordi… and it has been said that the role Garfield had passed over to Elordi was the Monster. The cast and character matchings haven’t been confirmed, but it’s believed that Isaac is playing Dr. Frankenstein, with Goth as his love interest, and Waltz most likely playing Dr. Pretorius.
Isaac’s spotted on set in his character’s wardrobe:
Whatever Goth’s role is, she had to get a digital body scan done for it. Goth has had to get plaster life casts / head molds done multiple times in her career, but a digital body scan was a first for her. In a video breakdown of the life cast scene she did for the movie MaXXXine, Goth said, “I just had to do another (life cast) for Frankenstein, but rather than the mold, it was a scan! It’s changing, isn’t it? And it’s a little bittersweet. I think I prefer (the mold).” Goth told Total Film that the experience of working on the film has “been amazing. It’s everything I wanted it to be and more. I love Guillermo. I love working with him, he’s an incredible director, everyone knows that, but he’s also just like such a wonderful person and, yeah, I’m very excited.” Goth has also revealed that she has taken to shadowing the director on her off days to watch him work.
Jacob Elordi has simply teased that Frankenstein will be “one hell of a movie.”
Vanity Fair shared a behind-the-scenes image that gives a glimpse of the monster, on the slab in Frankenstein’s laboratory:
Del Toro said the laboratory is found in “the remnants of once-great structures. Gothic romance was born partially out of the fascination with ruins. Sometimes they’re more beautiful than the building complete because it’s the clash of creation and destruction.“
PRODUCTION
Frankenstein is a massive production. Once believed to have a filming schedule of five months, production has turned out to have a schedule of more than seven months; the five month stretch was just the first block of filming, which took place in Ontario, Canada. Filming began on February 12th – but before cameras started rolling, del Toro took cast members Oscar Isaac, Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz, and Charles Dance to eat at a Toronto restaurant, where they posed for a picture with the staff. You can take a look at the picture right here:
A good portion of the Canada shoot appeared to involve snowbound locations and, as Dale mentioned, a ship stuck in the ice. An image of the ship can be seen below, and more can be found at THIS LINK.
From Canada, the production moved on to Scotland, where del Toro took the chance to stay in a haunted hotel room. For the shooting of exterior scenes, parts of Edinburgh, Scotland, were made to look like Victorian England. Images of the city’s transformation can be seen HERE. Oscar Isaac was spotted on the Edinburgh set, and images of him in his character’s wardrobe made their way online:
On September 30th, Guillermo del Toro tweeted, “Shooting has been completed on “F” — Joy!!!” So his dream project has finally been filmed in its entirety.
And that’s everything we know about Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein. For now.