Summary

• Guillermo del Toro's next movie is a long-awaited Frankenstein adaptation for Netflix that he has been ionate about for over 15 years.
• Del Toro's films often explore themes of loneliness and being an outcast using sympathetic monsters, making him perfect for this project.
• The movie was initially shelved due to Universal's plans for their Dark Universe franchise, but Del Toro is now finally able to bring his vision to life with a talented cast including Oscar Isaac and Andrew Garfield.

Guillermo del Toro's next movie is an adaptation that he's been working on for 15 years, and based on the jaw-dropping updates, the project seems worth the wait. Del Toro has become known for dark fairytale films like Pan's Labyrinth, The Shape of Water, and the 2000s Hellboy adaptations, but they aren't just thrilling horror movies made with the intention of scaring audiences with creative prosthetics. He uses these sympathetic monsters to convey themes of loneliness and being involuntarily outcast by society. Whether it's an orphaned demon, a human-vampire hybrid, or a hopeless romantic Amazonian fish-man, del Toro's characters are just looking for one thing: acceptance.

del Toro's 2022 stop-motion version of Pinocchio, which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Picture, and his next movie shares a lot of that film's themes. Given that del Toro doesn't depict monsters as just ghastly creatures to be afraid of but gives them depth and explores their psyche, he is perfectly suited to his next project.

Guillermo Del Toro Is Working On A Frankenstein Movie For Netflix

Guillermo del Toro's next movie is a Frankenstein adaptation for Netflix, which has been 15 years in the making. The project began in 2008 when he had a first-look deal with Universal, and the studio picked up the project with Doug Jones playing the title creature (via IndieWire). Jones has appeared in many of del Toro's movies, often buried under make-up, as with his characters the Pale Man in Pan's Labyrinth, Amphibian Man in The Shape of Water, and Abe Sapien in Hellboy. Unfortunately, despite sitting through makeup tests, Jones revealed that the movie was shelved because of Universal's plans to develop its Dark Universe franchise (via Collider).

The Dark Universe unofficially started with Dracula Rising and officially kicked off with 2017's The Mummy. Jones commented, "The idea came to do what Marvel is doing, where there’s an entire Universal Monsters universe where they can interplay with each other and guest in each other’s movies." Jones added that Guillermo del Toro likely didn't want to make a movie that was part of a larger universe where dark fairytales aren't a priority. However, in 2013, del Toro continued with his own project, wishing to cast Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead role and have Charlie Kaufman write the screenplay (via IndieWire), but that didn't come to fruition either.

More than five years after Universal's cancelation of its Dark Universe idea, Guillermo del Toro gave an update on his Frankenstein. He explained his ion for the project, noting, "I have been wanting to do [this] for 50 years since I saw the first Frankenstein. I had an epiphany, and it's basically a movie that required a lot of growth and a lot of tools that I couldn't have done 10 years ago. Now I'm brave or crazy enough or something."

Why Del Toro’s Frankenstein Movie Already Sounds Great

Given Guillermo del Toro's penchant for sympathetic monsters and making audiences relate to them while they still wreak havoc, there's no better director to helm Frankenstein. The original adaptation from 1931 can be seen as the foundation for all his unique fairytales, and that's likely the case given that he cites it as one of his favorite movies of all time (via BFI). Guillermo del Toro has put together an incredible cast, too. Though it isn't clear which actor is playing which character, Frankenstein will star Oscar Isaac, Andrew Garfield, Christoph Waltz, and Mia Goth, who has quickly become known as a scream queen after X, Pearl, and Infinity Pool.

Sources: IndieWire, Collider, BFI