Doug Jones, who Guillermo del Toro recently revealed would be playing the part of Frankenstein’s monster in his upcoming adaptation of the popular tale, has said that the film will be a complete reinvention of Mary Shelley’s original story.
“He’s got a four-picture deal with Universal,” said Jones to Sci-Fi Wire at the Wizard World Philadelphia Convention. “So once he’s done with The Hobbit, I think the first thing that’s up on the docket will be Frankenstein. And reinvention is going to be the name of it, because he’s going back to the Mary Shelley book and starting fresh with it.” Jones also elaborated further on the design of the character, saying that it wouldn’t be a hulking behemoth like the classic look, but more updated and modern. “It will not be a big, lumbering Boris Karloff type, but more of a skinny, skeletal, stringy-muscled version made from spare parts of some other guy,” he said. “The designs I have seen so far of the make-up test we are going to try brought tears to my eyes. I can’t tell you what I saw, but just know it brought tears to my eyes. I was emotionally touched that I may get to play this character.”
Guillermo del Toro will not be filming Frankenstein for approximately five years, as the director is currently helming the adaptation of The Hobbit in New Zealand for now. Despite the wait, Jones is certain that only good can come of it. “We are starting make-up tests, actually, in a couple of weeks,” Jones said. “We are going to do some tests just to see, because he has five years to play with this. He’s taking that luxury of time to make this absolutely perfect. This is his dream. He was inspired by Frankenstein when he was a kid. It was the monster that made him want to make monsters. So, because of that, it’s been [a] lifelong [dream], and he wants to be perfect with him.”
Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus, was first published anonymously by Shelley in 1818 (later credited to her in the 1831 third edition). The novel acts as a cautionary tale for man’s further reaching into science for answers to his own existence, and is considered by many to be the first true science-fiction novel.
