Earlier this week, we spoke with the lovely and obnoxiously talentedDavid Koeppfor an upcoming episode of our interview series Collider Connected. Koepp’s new film as a writer/director,You Should Have Left, opens next week.You Should Have Leftis a spooky haunted house thriller withKevin BaconandAmanda Seyfried, and its connection to both the horror genre and to studio Universal had us wondering what the status of hisBride of Frankensteinscript was.
If you’ll recall,Bride of Frankensteinwas initially planned as one of the bigger, starrier entries in the failed Dark Universe experiment, meant to unite the classic Universal Monsters in a single shared continuum. Originally scheduled to be the second movie in the series afterTom Cruise’sThe Mummyopened in the summer of 2017, it had atentative February 2019 release date.Beauty and the BeastdirectorBill Condonwas going to direct Koepp’s script, withAngelina Jolierumored for the role of the shock-haired Bride. But by October 2017, the dominoes fell: therelease date was pulled, Dark Universe architectsAlex KurtzmanandChris Morganbailed, and the Dark Universe seemed extinct, with theBride of Frankensteinalong with it. Sets for the movie were already being constructed but were struck, actors quietly sent home.
But, true to form, there seems to be life in this Bride.
“That was one thing I did during quarantine – I brought backBride of Frankensteininto a place where I kind of always wanted it to be. Universal was very gracious to let me try again. Because they had geared up and shut down famously in the Dark Universe fiasco. Well, not fiasco, butdisappointment. So I have a version now and they have a version that we all really like. I think they’re talking to directors now,” Koepp said.
When we asked if it would be in the cost effective, highly profitable Blumhouse model ofThe Invisible Man, one of the year’s first big, pre-coronavirus hits (a newDracula is being plannedbyKaryn Kusama), and Koepp said yes, more or less.
“It’s not the great big, $150 million extravaganza with giant movie stars,” Koepp explained. “It’s not as scaled down asInvisible Manbut much more reasonable, doable thing, with, I think, a really cool idea and it’s all present day.”
We also had wondered if, along with Kurtzman and Morgan, Universe had tried to recruit Koepp to shepherd the Dark Universe and its series of interconnective narratives. “I’ve worked with Universal for a really long time. They send me stuff and ask for ideas. And I’m happy to consult. We were all trying to pitch in and make something out of that,” Koepp said, diplomatically.
“Not all ideas work out,” Koepp explained. “To their credit, what I really admired about Universal is they threw their hands up and went, ‘Hold on. This isn’t working out. Let’s stop and think for a year or two.’ I thought that was really smart. And big corporations don’t often do that. There aren’t a lot of New Coke moments where they go, ‘This is not as we hoped. We’re going to stop and go off on this other direction.’” The direction they went into, with smaller budgets, more creative risks, and an emphasis on scares over bigger superhero/adventure movie aspirations, has already paid off. We can’t wait to see what this new, streamlinedBride of Frankensteinlooks like.
Here’s what Koepp had to tell us aboutBride of Frankenstein. Look for more from my interview with Koepp on Collider soon.
