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Guillermo De Toro wants to create a multi-episode Frankenstein saga

Adaptations of classic books have been recently on the rise. Elizabeth Banks directs The Invisible Woman, Ryan Gosling is set to star in The Wolfman, and Karyn Kusama is bringing back Dracula.

Ask fantasy-horror filmmaker Guillermo del Toro what his dream project is and he will categorically state- Frankenstein.

The Mexican filmmaker is best known for special-effects tour de force fantasy films such as Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water so fans can imagine the epic adventure he could create out of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

During the latest San Diego Comic-Con (done virtually thanks to the COVID19 pandemic), Del Toro explained how he would approach the adaptation of the Mary Shelley book for the big screen.

“I’ve always [thought of it] as a two to three-part story, because in order to encompass the book you have to change points of view and it’s a complex exercise,” del Toro said.

“Frankenstein to me is the pinnacle of everything, and part of me wants to do a version of it, part of me has for more than 25 years chickened out of making it,” del Toro previously said in 2016. “I dream I can make the greatest Frankenstein ever, but then if you make it, you’ve made it. Whether it’s great or not, it’s done. You cannot dream about it anymore. That’s the tragedy of a filmmaker. You can dream of something but once you’ve made it, you’ve made it. That’s it. You landed a 10 or you landed a 6.5 but you were at the Olympics already, and you were judged.”

“I mean, look, I would love to do Frankenstein and Bride, or Frankenstein for sure, but it really, Frankenstein has been—I’ve been really, really, afraid. Donna [Langley, Universal executive] has approached me a few times to start it now and I’m always like, you know, it’s like the dream project so I’m a little, I’m a chicken shit, you know? When I do it, I need to do it. Like, if I do Frankenstein, I literally would stop everything, and I’m going to a sabbatical of three years, just to write that. It’s not something that’s gonna just flow, like second nature. It’s my favourite book in history.”

As long as fans and journalists keep probing- one day this project may see the light of day! Fans deserve to see a full, detailed adaptation of Frankenstein, and del Toro deserves to see his dream come true.

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