David Cronenberg Once Planned a ‘Frankenstein’ Movie — and It Sounds Perfect
Mary Shelley’s Gothic horror novel could have got another successful adaptation from Videodrome’s director, and there’s a reason why Cronenberg’s movie could have become one of the best Frankenstein films ever.
The audiences’ demand for another Gothic thriller has never quietened down ever since 1931’s Frankenstein stunned its viewers back in the day, with Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation coming to the screens almost a century later.
In between, Mary Shelley’s iconic novel has been adapted and reimagined several times by numerous proclaimed directors, and there was a time when David Cronenberg considered joining this list.
However, Cronenberg’s adaptation of Frankenstein never happened after all, but both the director and the original novel’s fans believe it could have topped any other previous monster movie.
David Cronenberg Almost Directed the Best Version of ‘Frankenstein’ in the 1980s
Though it wouldn’t be the first or even second adaptation of the famous novel, Cronenberg thought his Frankenstein could become a much more modernised version of the original story, also being imbued with the elements of the director’s personal style.
As many sources speculated back then, Cronenberg was involved in the movie for some time in the 1980s, having a very specific and peculiar idea in mind: making Frankenstein’s creature an initially harmless being that turns against the society after receiving people’s poor treatment.
Had it made to an actual movie, Cronenberg’s Frankenstein would become one of few adaptations that actually emphasised the Creature’s good intentions and Victor Frankenstein’s pure evil rather than painting the former as a real monster.
Apart from that, Frankenstein would be a great fit for Cronenberg’s filmography that boasts of lots of thrillers and body horrors, exploring the consequences of major physical transformations and the inner world of an outcast.
Guillermo del Toro Calls His ‘Frankenstein’ “a Song of the Human Experience”
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Even though David Cronenberg’s version of the novel never came to be, it seems like he might have passed the torch on to Guillermo del Toro.
In several interviews, the latter acknowledged he’d based his Frankenstein on his own experience of being an outsider as a kid, focusing on the Creature’s feelings rather than exploring the atrocities he made.
“It’s a story like Pinocchio, about a creature that is created by his father and thrown into the world, sort of into the deep end of the pool. He’s attempting to learn to swim by not drowning”, del Toro said in an interview with Variety back in August.
The director also highlighted that underneath all the grotesque Gothic visuals there’s a simple story of a father and a son whose fallout led to disastrous consequences.
“Frankenstein” is a song of the human experience. It’s the story of a father and a son. There’s so much of my own biography in the DNA of the novel and in the DNA of the movies”, he added.
Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein is now streaming on Netflix.
