That ol’ bolt-headed Frankenstein’s monster just can’t keep from staggering all over our screens, scaring the peasants and reminding us once again why it’s wrong for man to dabble in playing god. But if Lakeshore Entertainment and writer/director Stuart Beattie have any say in it, his misadventures are going to get a little more action-packed.
Back in 2009, the production company optioned Underworld co-creator Kevin Grevioux’s graphic novel I, Frankenstein, which finds The Monster a little more evolved that usual and able to clamp down on his more violent, basic urges. He’s also working as a private eye, investigating crimes in a world where Dracula is a crime kingpin and the Invisible Man a secret agent.
When it was announced, Underworld colleague Patrick Tatopoulos (a creature designing legend who made the jump to director with franchise outing Rise of the Lycans) was in the chair to call the shots.
But now, according to the Heat Vision blog, Beattie is the man for the job. A writer on the likes of Collateral, the original Pirates of the Caribbean and 30 Days of Night, Beattie recently made his own switch to writing/directing with Tomorrow, When the War Began, a Red Daw****n-style tale of Aussie teenagers forced to take arms against invaders.
His work on that has won him the seal of approval from Lakeshore, which has handed him the task of re-writing and directing I, Frankenstei****n this autumn. There’s no word on any casting yet, but with Beattie aboard, expect the announcements to follow in the coming months…