In some unrealized reality, the Dark Universe is giving the MCU a run for its money, but as we know, the failure of The Mummy brought the whole franchise crashing down before it even had a chance. One of the many projects in development for the Dark Universe was a remake of Bride of Frankenstein set to be directed by Bill Condon and written by David Koepp.
While speaking with Collider, David Koepp opened up about what Bill Condon and himself had planned for the Bride of Frankenstein remake.
It was going to be a very big lavish, beautiful, gothic horror production. And one idea I liked was the first thirty or forty pages took place in the 1870s as the Frankenstein movies do and then she became sort of inert for 150 years and was rediscovered and reawakened in the present day. And I thought that was cool.
David Koepp added that he did a couple of different versions of the Bride of Frankenstein remake. “That one was a dramatic history. It was gearing up, it was gonna be a great big movie,” Koepp said. “Bill Condon was gonna direct it and then The Mummy detonated and that all fell apart.” Koepp then attempted to scale the story back but said that it “didn’t quite work out,” although it was still interesting. There have been subsequent attempts at remaking or reimagining Bride of Frankenstein and Koepp is only too happy to let someone else have a crack at it.
One of the attempts at remaking Bride of Frankenstein to pop up after the Dark Universe collapsed was Bride, a sci-fi thriller that was described as a genre-bending twist of the original. Sebastián Lelio (Gloria) was set to direct the project for Apple and A24 as well as co-write the script alongside Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo. Scarlett Johansson was set to star and produce in the movie but it’s been some time since we heard anything about it.