It came out that Universal was very interested in getting a BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN remake off the ground with Angelina Jolie-Pitt, and while they attempt to sway the actress onboard, they’ve hired a screenwriter with not unformidable credentials.
David Koepp’s been hired to write the remake, which they hope Jolie-Pitt will both star in as the title character and direct. The idea is that she’ll only sign on the basis of the script, so they’ve spared no expense in getting one of the more prominent guys in the biz who, like Richard Curtis on their LITTLE MERMAID, is also a director in his own right.
Koepp’s obviously got a relationship with Universal from way back, having written CARLITO’S WAY, THE PAPER, THE SHADOW, and, oh yeah, that movie that made them more money than God (and continues to do so), JURASSIC PARK. He’s just as well known as a director these days, though his most recent, MORTDECAI, was…oh, you can fill in the rest (in all fairness, he didn’t write that one). He also wrote and directed the underrated, apocalyptic THE TRIGGER EFFECT, and a Johnny Depp movie that actually worked, the spooky, fun SECRET WINDOW.
The first two JURASSIC PARK movies show that Koepp’s got a way of delivering intense scares that nonetheless keep it below the R-rating level, and that he’s got a way of making stuff feel massive, foreboding, and iconic. He’s got more notches in his belt than, say Alex Kurtzman, who’s directing THE MUMMY and serving as co-overseer of this Classic Monsters lineup with Chris Morgan. Plus, if they can’t get Jolie, they can just ask him to direct, and save money on office space and transportation costs.
I really don’t know how a BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN movie works without a Frankenstein movie preceding it (which VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN wasn’t at all serving as), but it looks like getting Jolie-Pitt onboard, and building the movie around her talents, is the priority right now. It’s not like they got a nation of fanboys with pitchforks ready hoping they’ll do the property justice, right? Right???
