No stranger to playing the monstrous likes of Anton Chigurh, it looks like Javier Bardem will be tackling an actual monster in a future role, as Variety reports that he's in talks to play Dr. Frankenstein's infamous creation in Universal's new shared monster movie universe.
He's just the latest high profile hire (well, assuming he spills ink on a contract after the talks are concluded) for the studio, which has Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan building a series of linked creature features that aim to bring the classic characters to life in a new way.
Kurtzman is shooting the first of the new batch of films, with Tom Cruise, Russell Crowe and Sofia Boutella starring in The Mummy. In an ironic twist, Bardem was actually offered the role of Dr. Jekyll, but passed on it, with Crowe taking on the part. It seems unlikely that Frankenstein's monster will show up in that movie (unless they film some extra tag scene).
So that's Cruise and Crowe on board with Johnny Depp likely as the Invisible Man and Angelina Jolie, who is being courted to star in and possibly direct a Bride Of Frankenstein film. Quite a collection if it all works out.
Bardem was last seen in The Gunman and has worked with that film's star, Sean Penn on his latest directorial outing, The Last Face. He's working on Darren Aronofsky's new, untitled pic and will be back on our screens in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, which will arrive here on May 26 next year.