Movies
Lakeshore Eyes New Franchise With ‘I, Frankenstein’
Lakeshore Entertainment is eyeing a new franchise in the shape of I, Frankenstein with its Underworld associates Kevin Grevioux and Patrick Tatopoulos. The company acquired the script last Thursday after Underworld writer/actor Grevioux and business partner Robert Sanchez brought in the property. Lakeshore has scheduled a July start on the contemporary fantasy thriller in which the legendary monster stands between humans and an uprising of supernatural creatures determined to overthrow the world. You’ll find more on the deal below.
Grevioux wrote the original screenplay based on his upcoming Darkstorm Studios graphic novel of the same name. Tatopoulos, who directed Underworld: Rise Of The Lycans and designed the effects for the vampires versus werewolves series, will direct.
Lakeshore chairman and CEO Tom Rosenberg, president Gary Lucchesi and Richard Wright will produce and Grevioux and Sanchez will serve as executive producers. Ryan Turek associate produces.
“When Kevin Grevioux and Robert Sanchez presented us with I, Frankenstein we knew immediately that this was a great and original franchise that could best utilise Patrick’s extraordinary talent and vision,” Luchesi said.
“The re-imagining of the Frankenstein mythos and the diverse creatures of legend is a dream project for me“, Grevioux said. “I’m blessed and thankful that both Tom and Gary really sparked to the material and recognised this property’s potential as not only a film, but a launch pad for various multi-media platforms.”
“And a chance to work with such a visionary titan as Patrick again makes this experience even more amazing.”
Universal has been having a hell of a time getting their Universal Monsters brand back on a better path in the wake of the Dark Universe collapsing, with four movies thus far released in the years since The Mummy attempted to get that interconnected universe off the ground.
First was Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man, to date the only post-Mummy hit for the Universal Monsters, followed by The Last Voyage of the Demeter, Renfield, and now Abigail. The latter three films have attempted to bring Dracula back to the screen in fresh ways, but both Demeter and Renfield severely underperformed at the box office. And while Abigail is a far better vampire movie than those two, it’s unfortunately also struggling to turn a profit.
Where does the Universal Monsters brand go from here? The good news is that Universal and Blumhouse have once again enlisted the help of Leigh Whannell for their upcoming Wolf Man reboot, which is howling its way into theaters in January 2025. This is good news, of course, because Whannell’s Invisible Man was the best – and certainly most profitable – of the post-Dark Universe movies that Universal has been able to conjure up. The film ended its worldwide run with $144 million back in 2020, a massive win considering the $7 million budget.
Given the film was such a success, you may wondering why The Invisible Man 2 hasn’t come along in these past four years. But the wait for that sequel may be coming to an end.
Speaking with the Happy Sad Confused podcast this week, The Invisible Man star Elisabeth Moss notes that she feels “very good” about the sequel’s development at this point in time.
“Blumhouse and my production company [Love & Squalor Pictures]… we are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” Moss updates this week. “And I feel very good about it.”
She adds, “We are very much intent on continuing that story.”
At the end of the 2020 movie, Elisabeth Moss’s heroine Cecilia Kass uses her stalker’s high-tech invisibility suit to kill him, now in possession of the technology that ruined her life.
Stay tuned for more on The Invisible Man 2 as we learn it.
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