Guillermo del Toro would really love to make his version of Frankenstein at Universal, but in his own words:
It's like the dream project so I'm a little, you know, I'm a chicken shit, you know?
I've visited del Toro's Bleak House, the place where he has his amazing collection of props, memorabilia and oddities, and it's stocked with Frankenstein stuff. Bernie Wrightson pages, molds of Jack Pierce's famous designs, early book editions - he has it all and it's breathtaking. More than any other monster Frankenstein is the Guillermo del Toro character, a big, misunderstood guy who just wants to be friends. This is the character I most want to see del Toro tackle - more than At the Mountains of Madness, more than Pacific Rim 2.
When I talked to him on the set of Legendary/Universal's Crimson Peak he talked a bit about the Universal Monsters, which are getting rebooted right now. He said that Universal's Donna Langley had approached him about Frankenstein, but said he would need to do it right.
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 favorite book in history.
When asked if he would do Frankenstein and/or Bride of Frankenstein he said:
I would love to do that. Hopefully one day it coincides that Donna wants to do it and I am not a chicken shit.
But his thoughts go beyond those two. He has thoughts on the entire Universal Monsters universe, including a take on Creature From the Black Lagoon.
I think that it's a great universe to develop. I personally think that they should all be period movies. I would love to see Creature from the Black Lagoon in Victorian England with the Victorian exploration, with a balloon and steam riverboats.
Now that the connected universe is happening will we find that Guillermo is not a chicken shit and that he'll be doing Frankenstein?