I don’t know why Universal is surprised that the Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie Pitt-starrer BY THE SEA isn’t making waves (boom) at the box office, considering how arty and somber the movie is, but they seem to have a grand plan in effect for the director/star.
According to this THR article about the aftermath of the film’s failure, they mention that part of Universal’s interest for picking up the rights to her depiction of a crumbling marriage was to get Jolie onboard for two of their properties: their classic monster line and WANTED.
”…even if Universal loses tens of millions of dollars on BY THE SEA, the studio is gambling that by backing Jolie Pitt's artistic whim, she will be amenable to starring in its tentpole BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, which is part of the Monster's universe from producers Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan, or a long-hoped-for sequel to WANTED. Either of those films could end up raking in far more in profits than Universal will lose on BY THE SEA.”
This falls in line with how many cynics view Hollywood, particularly in the aftermath of the Sony e-mail debacle, as a place where projects get made and millions of dollars get spent (or wasted) for projects doomed to fail as part of the political game. Of course Universal cares more about a potential BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN remake or WANTED 2 than Jolie Pitt’s $10-25 million drama, even if they will indeed lose close to $40 mil on it. Those are likely big, global moneymakers, far more in line with what the studios are pumping out these days than the low-to-mid-budget BY THE SEA.
It’s not a surprise that they want a WANTED 2 with Jolie, even though her character bit it in the first one, and her for BOF, like MALEFICENT, seems like an obvious call. Her uber-badass Fox was the whole basis for WANTED’s marketing, even though McAvoy was the star, and she was indeed the best part of the movie, with Chloe Moretz even citing her performance as the primary reason she wanted to play Hit-Girl. As for her as Frankenstein’s Bride, well, like Michael said, “She’s got the look.” Her eyes, her tall, statuesque frame, and that moneymaker (her face, guys) all would lend themselves to a striking take on the character, not to mention her intense acting style. Obviously, she’d probably get a little more screentime and far more to do than Elsa Lanchester in the original, and probably wouldn’t be relegated to freaking out and dying in the last reel of the film (spoiler alert). In fact, with Jolie Pitt in the role, it’s easy to imagine a BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN that actually completely revolves around the Bride herself, rather than Frankenstein and his monster. Hell, after her pilled-out tormenting of Pitt's character in BY THE SEA, maybe it'd be closer in line with that film than you'd think.
There’s no word on whether either of these projects will go anywhere; Uni’s got a wide set of creatures to choose from for their upcoming rollout of Classic Monster remakes, and they’ve struggled to give WANTED 2 any serious momentum since it came out in ’08 (though McAvoy’s star power is considerably stronger these days). But knowing that these two projects were in their master plan when they picked up BY THE SEA certainly helps explain where their heads were at in that decision. Because it certainly wasn’t to make any money on the film. Even they knew better than that.
You guys want a Jolie Pitt-fronted BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN or to see her return as the badass, tatted-up Fox?
