When director Guillermo Del Toro started talking about his take on
Frankenstein for the first time, as far back as last October (
here, this writer immediately envisioned
Hellboy star Ron Perlman. Silly me for thinking of the obvious choice, apparently, but I still can't help but think of a hulking, lumbering creation.
On the red carpet at the premiere of
Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Del Toro posits an unconventional alternative.
"For the monster I would love to have Doug Jones," he revealed. Jones has worked for the director as a creature performance since
Mimic and plays Abe Sapien in the
Hellboy films.
"I think he can do a fantastic job. Ron looks seven feet tall in Hellboy, but he's not. I think we could do that with Doug, but I would love to do it with him. The only vision of the Frankenstein monster I've ever latched onto is Berni Wrightson's. He's lanky and long and it's gorgeous in a tragic way. Doug has all of those qualities."
Later, I caught up to Jones and revealed the good news,
"You've just made my day! I never knew that!" Jones expressed with his jaw on the floor. That said, who's performance of the monster has he admired the most?
"Boris Karloff, no question. I respect that man so much. Every time his name is brought up in the same sentence as mine, I'm honored and I don't want to belittle his name with mine."
Del Toro is in the early stages of prepping two
Hobbit films for executive producers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, an endeavor that will require him to put
Frankenstein on the backburner for now.
"I think it's going to have to be developed very carefully over the next four years," he chuckles.
"Look, I would never attempt to recreate the Whale Frankenstein, but I do think there is an alternate story that could be told about the Frankenstein mythos." Like?
"It's more like a fairy tale, a strange, weird fairy tale."
Asked who his ideal Victor Frankenstein would be, Del Toro simply smiled and said,
"I won't say anything 'cause then you would know what I'm doing."
The director says he's been bouncing back and forth to London lately for the
Hobbit films. There are no scripts yet, however,
"We already started notes and underlining and e-mailing back and forth. A few lines have been written here and there, but we will have the big pow-wow [soon] - bad pizza, take-out food in a sort've a pressure cooker [meeting] in about two weeks."
Comments
Posted by: TPJR on June 29, 2008 at 01:48:13
That's a good call on Doug Jones as Frankenstein. Bernie Wrightson's depiction is closest to the original story, and Jones would fit it well...
Posted by: inHawaii on June 29, 2008 at 02:08:36
'nuff with the remakes already!
Posted by: Caterpillar on June 29, 2008 at 09:43:27
How is this a remake? There have been literally HUNDREDS of adaptations of Shelly's FRANKENSTEIN and Stoker's DRACULA over the past 100 years.
Posted by: spideytracer on June 29, 2008 at 09:46:44
It wouldn't be a remake if Del Toro actually did this classic because he'd bring his own unique vision to the table. Nobody can do what Del Toro does, and I firmly believe he could bring us a classic Frankenstein fable that would be as original as the 1931 James Whale masterpiece.
Posted by: dude on June 29, 2008 at 09:58:13
Remake? Are you kidding me? Are you that ignorant? I mean, damn.
Posted by: MadEyeMarky on June 29, 2008 at 11:05:18
Doug Jones really hasnt verbally acted much that i can tell, but his visual acting is great. He could be a modern day Karloff easily. I wouldnt mind seeing Del Toro's take on Frankenstein... my favorite is still the Karloff/Whale epic film. I didnt Care for DeNiro as frankenstein, Randy Quaid didnt do a bad job, and i didnt care much for the frankenstein monster in Van Helsing all that much...those are just a few of the frankenstein stories out there....i will however say that im endeared to Peter Boyle in Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein...just funny stuff!!
Posted by: srh1son on June 29, 2008 at 14:07:12
Notice how he doesn't mention an actor for Victor Frankenstein? Because we would know what he is up to. I'm betting he's casting a woman as the doctor and playing up some sort of love story between the doctor and monster. He did say fairy tale. That would certainly be a unique take.
Posted by: zhulok on June 29, 2008 at 15:03:54
^
Thats exactly what I was thinking. Doug Jones is an awesom visual actor and i cant wait to see what Del Toro does with this franchise.
Posted by: Reed on June 29, 2008 at 18:34:56
When I read that if he gave away who he had in mind for Victor that we would know what he was up to, was I wrong to immediately think of Johnny Depp?
Posted by: EggMcMaggot on June 29, 2008 at 20:01:53
del toro and jones....cant go wrong! both are amazing, and able to bring a unique spin on a classic
Posted by: RevSean on June 29, 2008 at 21:02:38
Jones is the voice of Abe Sapien in the cartoons as well as this time around in HELLBOY 2. Anyone who can play "Mac Tonite" and "The Pale Man" has an amazing range. He's a great actor and I'd love to see him in the role.
Posted by: Marcel on June 29, 2008 at 21:09:19
Posted by: srh1son on June 29, 2008 at 14:07:12
Notice how he doesn't mention an actor for Victor Frankenstein? Because we would know what he is up to. I'm betting he's casting a woman as the doctor and playing up some sort of love story between the doctor and monster. He did say fairy tale. That would certainly be a unique take.
________
Please, don't let it come to this. Anything but another romance movie.
Posted by: lizardicus73 on June 30, 2008 at 07:21:36
Jeremy Irons as the Frankenstein monster would be perfect- no?
Posted by: bcup on June 30, 2008 at 09:38:09
I'm with inHawaii, haven't we had enough of the remakes. Can't anybody be original anymore.
Posted by: johnny boy on June 30, 2008 at 12:28:21
why the **** is everyone (or at least most people) so quick to dismiss remakes??? Del Toro is a very competent filmmaker and his take on Frankenstein should be interesting. Cinema is only 100 years old, so it's still relatively new compared to other arts... so why not remakes? There's plenty of room for fresh interpretations of previously told stories. And it's not like the remake does anything to the original... if you don't care for the remake, then go back to the original... it's that simple.
Michael Bay is producing a remake of Hitchcock's Birds... even that too. Whether or not the remake is better doesn't affect the quallity of the original. So in the end, who cares?
Posted by: johnny boy on June 30, 2008 at 12:32:32
By the way, remakes have been happening since the early days of cinema... it's not a recent Hollywood trend. I'm sure most people didn't know that there have been 10-15 remakes of the Wizard of Oz. So this argument for being 'original' is kind of pointless cause everything has already been done in some form or another.
Posted by: johnny boy on June 30, 2008 at 12:33:47
ha ha ha ha Hitchcock's name was censored!
Posted by: RJ on June 30, 2008 at 14:43:25
My guess is his perfect Victor Frankenstein will be none other than Doug Jones himself and The Creature will be a cloned version of himself brought back to life.
In fact, I will bet my house on it.
Posted by: RJ on June 30, 2008 at 14:46:28
And how stupid are you anti-remake people? This isn't a remake of a film, it's based on a clasic piece of literature from over 100 years ago. Holy crap, are people really getting this stupid that they don't even know that? That' what 2 year community college diplomas are doing to our society. Nobody has a well-rounded education about anything anymore. People are just being trained to do specific jobs and not being educated as people. Then when their job doesn't work out, they're lost and have nothing else to go on and flounder throughout life because they never got The Big Picture at any point.
Posted by: Billofill on June 30, 2008 at 16:43:14
DOUG JONES? *Drops Fork* Doug Jones cast as Frankenstein is like it was chosen by the finger of God!
Posted by: Supreme Power on June 30, 2008 at 17:38:59
I agree. People don't seem to understand what a remake is anymore. Like, BATMAN BEGINS is not a remake. It's a reLAUNCH. Tim Burton's PLANET OF THE APES is not a remake. It's a reIMAGINING. The movie PSYCHO that had Vince Vaughn in it was, in fact, a reMAKE. If your taking an original movie, and doing the pretty much the same thing, that's a remake. In the case of Batman, Incredible Hulk, Planet of the Apes, The Pink Panther, etc., those are creating a new franchise and more-or-less ingnoring what came before it (granted Planet of the Apes didn't spawn more movies, but Burton typically doesn't do sequels [outside of Batman Returns]).
All that aside, I'd love to see del Toro direct a Frankenstein movie! I put that up there with Tim Burton doing an Alice & Wonderland movie! I could see Johnny Depp playing Victor Frankenstein, in a way similar to Jack Sparrow, Hunter Thompson, and a bit Willy Wonka in it.
-OR-
Maybe RJ is right, and Doug Jones will be the good Dr., and be cloning himself. That's a very intiguing theory....
Posted by: MGeS on June 30, 2008 at 17:52:57
I just seen "The Orphanage", it's a great movie with a great story, much like "Pan's Labyrinth." I will watch anything related to Guillermo del Toro, I trust this guy.
Posted by: joe asylo on July 1, 2008 at 02:00:56
hey he's who only starting.
Posted by: Gwydion Frost on July 1, 2008 at 02:21:07
...anyone here concerned that the Frankenstein Monster is going to have eyes in his hands...?
Posted by: comic book guy on July 1, 2008 at 18:35:43
"eyes in hands" come to think of it didn't the monster in the Hellboy 2 trailer with the wings with eyes in them look a lot like the on in "pan's laberinth" minus the wings of course. Am I the only that see's this?
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