Lucky Number Slevin director Paul McGuigan has been given the reins to bring Frankenstein back to life now that Shawn Levy is out. I guess what happened was that Levy’s version of Frankenstein was just too damn expensive for Fox, which is no surprise because it was upwards of $80 million.
Per Variety, “Levy wanted a big-budget version of the classic monster tale, according to sources close to the project, while Fox wants to keep costs on the project down.”
Earlier in the year Levy explained his plans for the film saying,“In the case of ‘Frankenstein,’ my whole approach is based on a mo-cap SimulCam playback so that it’s not a dude with scars on his face. It’s not just kind of latex and a costume; it would be a motion-capture performance of the monster—I can give away maybe not too much by saying there’s more than one in our version—and then I would go to Europe, shoot the movie, do scenes with the real actors and I would be able to see the motion-captured monster in real time due to SimulCam, so yes that is our technological VFX paradigm for Frankenstein.”
It would be safe to assume that those plans have changed considering the smaller budget that Fox has put on the film. Now that there is a new director on board, the original script — written by Chronicle’s Max Landis — will certainly be heading for some rewrites but no word on whether it will be Landis doing them or if Fox will hire a new writer for the job.
I think this is the best move for the project. I never really liked the idea of Levy directing one of the most classic monster movies of all time; especially when you consider his body of work includes films like Real Steel, Date Night, and Night at the Museum. And while those were all very successful films, I don’t really like the idea of a CGI Frankenstein because that would take away everything from the monster that made him so iconic. McGuigan is a much more down to earth option who has been working heavily in TV for quite a while now but is much more known for his fantastic film Lucky Number Slevin.
