Angelina Jolie Pitt To Portray The Bride of Frankenstein?

It looks as though one of the most famous actresses of our time may be set to take on the role of arguably the most iconic female character in horror film history.

It has emerged in a report from The Hollywood Reporter that Angelina Jolie Pitt may be set to take the title role in a reboot of ‘The Bride of Frankenstein’ at Universal.

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The report claims that the studio backed Jolie Pitt’s recent directorial project ‘By The Sea’ as a quid pro quo, leaving the actress-turned-director “amendable” to starring in either a new take on the horror classic, or a sequel to the actress’s 2008 action hit ‘Wanted.’

Given that ‘By the Sea’ - in which Jolie also stars with husband Brad Pitt - has proven a notorious critical and commercial failure, it seems fair to assume that Jolie Pitt will be left in a position where she may be more obliged to bend to the studio’s will.

Not that ‘The Bride of Frankenstein’ should not be considered a prestige project. The 1935 film from director James Whale, the first sequel to his original 1931 ‘Frankenstein,’ has long been regarded the finest horror film made by Universal in their golden age, and still one of the greatest films ever made in the genre to this day.

Boris Karloff gave his finest performance as the troubled Creature, whilst Colin Clive’s Frankenstein teams up with Ernest Thesiger’s eccentric Dr Pretorious to create the monster’s mate.

Though Elsa Lanchester appears as the Bride for only a few minutes, she remains one of the most instantly recognisable movie monsters of all time.

A new take on ‘The Bride of Frankenstein’ has long been expected, as part of Universal’s ongoing plans to relaunch their monsters in a shared cinematic universe (much as the studio did back in their heyday with such films as ‘Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man,’ ‘House of Frankenstein’ and ‘House of Dracula’).

While this contemporary monster universe was ostensibly started by last year’s ‘Dracula Untold,’ it is set to really begin with the 2017 reboot of ‘The Mummy.’

‘The Creature From The Black Lagoon’ is also to be remade, with Scarlet Johansson said to be the studio’s favourite for the female lead. A new take on ‘Van Helsing’ is also known to be in the works.

However, beyond ‘The Mummy’ (due 24 March 2017) no release dates have been announced to date, so we do not yet have any indication as to when we could expect any of these new Universal monster movies, let alone a new ‘Bride of Frankenstein.’

In the meantime, fans of vintage horror wait with bated breath to see if these new films from Universal do the source material justice. The prominent involvement of writer-producer Alex Kurtzman (‘Transformers,’ ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2,′ also set to direct 'The Mummy’) hasn’t inspired huge confidence from many - nor have hints that the films will be aiming for a PG-13 action adventure tone.

Still, if Universal do indeed get the tone right and bring their monsters back with real style, is there anyone better suited to the Bride of Frankenstein than Jolie Pitt? And might she also be a possibility as director?

Picture Credit: Universal, WENN