Guillermo Del Toro Is Going From An Outside-The-Box, Oscar-Winning ‘Pinocchio’ Take To ‘Frankenstein,’ With A Killer Cast

Guillermo del Toro just won his third Oscar Sunday night, for his way outside-the-box stop-motion take on Pinocchio. (Meanwhile, Robert Zemeckis’ more faithful — to the classic Disney movie, that is — version won Worst Remake/Rip-Off/Sequel at the Razzies.) He also has a Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water, under his belt. He can pretty much do anything. And so he’s making an adaptation of a novel that’s already produced at least two of his favorite films.

As per Deadline, del Toro is reportedly in early talks to reunite with Netflix, who funded his Pinocchio, so that he can tackle Frankenstein. How far afield he’ll go from Mary Shelley’s source, if at all, is still up in the air. What is known is that he’s already landed his three leads: Andrew Garfield, Oscar Isaac, and Mia Goth. Which one will play Dr. Frankenstein and which his creature, whose names generations of people have gotten confused. Goth, meanwhile, will likely be playing the mad scientist’s love interest.

On his 2012 Sight & Sound list, in which he picked his 10 favorite films, del Toro included the classic 1931 Frankenstein, which introduced the world to Boris Karloff. For his 2022 poll, Frankenstein was gone, replaced by its campy-sad and even better sequel Bride of Frankenstein. Neither is particularly faithful to the source, which has been (mostly) faithfully adapted by the oddly titled 1973 TV movie Frankenstein: The True Story and by Kenneth Branagh’s over-the-top Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, from 1994. Where will del Toro’s take on the “Modern Prometheus” (from 1821) fall Hopefully one day we’ll see. And hopefully it will continue to make people further forget the woebegone twist on Frankenstein with James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe.