Shared cinematic universes seem to be pretty much in vogue now. Marvel has one, DC has one, and now Universal is attempting to capture the same genie in the bottle, only this time bringing together some of cinema’s quintessentially iconic monsters. To this end, the studio has already started tapping up potential names, with Kingsman: The Secret Service star Sofia Boutella playing the Mummy in Alex Kurtzman’s remake, and Dwayne Johnson reportedly being sounded out as the new Wolf Man. Now, we can add another name to the potential monster squad role call: Javier Bardem.
According to a report on Variety, Bardem is in talks to play Frankenstein’s monster in what will be the umpteenth adaptation of Mary Shelley’s science fiction classic. There hasn’t been any word on whether it’ll be a straightforward take on the novel (we guess technically that’ll be called a ‘standalone’ movie now), or whether he’ll show up in another Universal monster movie (indeed, a Bride Of Frankenstein movie is currently in development), but we’ll wait and nonetheless.
Considering that Bardem previously turned down the chance to play Henry Jekyll in The Mummy (a role that eventually went to Russell Crowe), it seems like Universal were determinded to get their man one way or another, and we can’t exactly blame them. He has proved himself more than adapt at playing some very human on-screen monsters, from No Country For Old Men‘s force of nature Anton Chiguhr, to Skyfall‘s Raoul Silva (even though we’d put the Creature more in the ‘tragic antihero’ category), so it’s no surprise that Universal hasn’t given up.
The Mummy will be released in cinemas on 9 June 2017. You can download the SciFiNow Horror Handbook: Hammer Horror from GreatDigitalMags.com now. For more news about the latest movies, pick up the new issue of SciFiNow.
