While fairytales and vampires continue to jockey for the position of hottest Hollywood fodder, Victor Frankenstein and his iconic, monstrous creation, have not-so-quietly been establishing a beachhead on the shores of Development Hell. Now one of the projects surrounding them has nabbed a director, with Let Me In’s Matt Reeves signing on to shoot This Dark Endeavour for Summit.
You may recall that the company picked up the rights to Kenneth Oppel’s book (full title: This Dark Endeavour: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein) back in February. The plot has a young Victor on a mission to save his dangerously ill brother Konrad. His quest? To track down the elements that make up the legendary Elixir of Life. Along the way, there are betrayals, threats and a love triangle bubbling up between Victor, Konrad and their best friend, Elizabeth.
Jacob Aaron Estes, who wrote and directed Mean Creek, is on hand to adapt the book – which doesn’t hit shelves until the summer, and is planned as the start of a series – into script form.
Reeves has been a busy man recently, loading up his work slate with plans to direct a film of vampire novel **The Passage for Fox and adapt/oversee a version of sci-fi short story **8 O’clock in the Morning for Universal.
And Frankenstein’s monster is everywhere right now, with half the studios in Hollywood looking to catch some lightning and get their projects crackling into life. Why, just yesterday, we reported on the current state of play with Frankenflicks, including one being produced by Sam Raimi…