James Whale's BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN is the crown jewel in Universal's Classic Monsters library. It is the one movie you aren't allowed to fuck up. Just ask Franc Roddam. If you can find him*.
The problem with remaking James Whale's BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN is you're tethered to that title for marketing purposes. If you simply decided to embellish the companion-creating element of Shelley's story under a different title, you might be able to avoid comparisons to Whale's classic. But when you invoke that title, there's the memory of a beautifully written, surprisingly funny, and bravely subversive (particularly in terms of its homosexual subtext) masterpiece that cannot be surpassed. Probably. Unless you're supremely fucking talented.
I like Neil Burger (the writer-director of INTERVIEW WITH THE ASSASSIN, THE ILLUSIONIST and the seriously underrated THE LUCKY ONES), but "supremely fucking talented"? Show me.
It looks like he's going to get his chance under the aegis of Universal and Imagine. Both companies have been trying to get a BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN remake off the ground for years now, stretching back to 2004, when AMERICAN SPLENDOR's Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini were hired to the contemporize the material. Whereas Berman and Pulcini wanted to make a movie about a young woman being "unnaturally" resurrected, Burger is apparently going in another direction with his take. I sincerely hopes this means he isn't going period, because that would be a huge mistake. That said, I also hope he isn't trying to goof around with the cloning issue, because that's old hat anymore. And I don't know how you work in Pretorious without directly referencing Whale's movie.
Most of all, I just don't know "Why?".
Burger is obviously talented, but I wish he had more of a genre background, as John Carpenter did when he tackled the already-great THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD. For all of my misgivings, there is a way forward here. It's just going to take a brilliant filmmaker with a unique vision to blaze that trail. Anyone care to make the case for Burger being that guy?
For more on Universal's Neil Burger experiment, check out Steven Zeitchik's story at The Hollywood Reporter.
*And I realize that was a Columbia Pictures production. Doesn't change the fact that he called his movie THE BRIDE. Should've stuck to the story about the monster and his little buddy; the Sting/Beals business was dreadful.
