“Bride of Frankenstein” Remake Moves Foward

The proposed remake for “The Bride of Frankenstein” is moving forward according to the Hollywood Reporter’s Risky Business blog.

Universal and Imagine are in talks with Neil Burger to write and direct the upcoming remake.

Burger would write the script with Dirk Wittenborn.  Burger has previously directed and written the Ed Norton “The Illusionist.”

The original “Bride of Frankenstein,” which starred Boris Karloff as the monster and Elsa Lanchester as the titular bride, continued the story that began with 1931’s “Frankenstein.” A monster, on the run from an angry mob, has a series of adventures, and also persuades Dr. Frankenstein to create a mate. The doctor is successful, but the bride (who is not a central character) winds up rejecting the monster at the end of the movie.

“Bride” has had a series of stops and starts. About five years ago, “American Splendor” scribes Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini were attached to write the screenplay for the Uni/Imagine update. Their concept was to set the picture in contemporary New York, with a young woman dying and then unnaturally brought back to life (Burger’s version is expected to differ significantly from that concept). Jacob Estes, a writer on Spider-Man spinoff “Venom,” also at one point had been attached to write a draft.