So how many Frankenstein movies are in development in Hollywood? Well Guillermo del Toro has a take; “Limitless” helmer Neil Burger has a remake of “Bride of Frankenstein” at Universal; “Tomorrow, When the War Began” director Stuart Beattie is attached to the comic book adaptation “I, Frankenstein”; Summit has “This Dark Endeavor,” a collaboration between “Mean Creek” writer Jacob Estes and “Let Me In” director Matt Reeves; and Fox just hired Max Landis for another version of the movie monster. But it looks like an indie production will beat all the major players to the big screen and it will star an actor we haven’t seen in a long, long time.
Variety reports that Haley Joel Osment — better known as the kid who could see dead people in M. Night Shyamalan‘s “The Sixth Sense” — will star in “Wake the Dead.” Based on the graphic novels by Steven Niles, adapted by Jay Russell (“Ladder 49,” “My Dog Skip“) and Jim Hart (“Hook,” “Bram Stoker’s Dracula“) with the former directing, the film is a contemporary re-telling of the tale with Osment playing Victor Franklin, “a college student experimenting with reversing death.” Things presumably go awry.
We have to say, the talent behind this isn’t bad so we’re cautiously curious to see how this comes together. And certainly a movie produced by former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash can’t go wrong, can it? Filming will begin this fall, but don’t expect any of those other Frankenstein movies to fall to the wayside because of this. As Snow White and “Immortals“/”300: Battle Of Artemisia“/”Wrath of the Titans” have shown, there is no idea in Hollywood that can’t be beaten to death.
