Writer Stuart Beattie knows his way around a blockbuster. With films like “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,” “30 Days of Night,” “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” and “Australia” under his belt, Beattie certainly has a handle on big screen spectacles and genre fare — and he’s about to tackle one of cinema’s most famed monsters of all time.
THR reports that Beattie has signed on to write and direct an adaptation of Kevin Grevioux‘s Darkstorm Studios graphic novel “I, Frankenstein.” It’s another genre mashup, this time, relocating Frankenstein to a modern day setting and pitting him against a host of supernatural creatures who are looking to take over the human world. So why has Beattie, who has never directed a film in Hollywood, been selected for the task?
Over in Australia, Beattie made his directorial debut with “Tomorrow When the World Began.” The “Red Dawn” riffing film — about a group of teenagers who band together to fight off foreign invaders — smashed box office records at home and there are already plans for sequels (and curiously, it seems like a great fit for a genre distributor here like Magnet or IFC but no one has picked it up). Lakeshore Entertainment, who are producing ‘Frankenstein,’ were likely impressed with what they saw, tasking Beattie with this film.
The plan is to try and mount the film this fall and before you start getting too excited, just remember that Grevioux also created the “Underworld” schlock-fest. So, keep those expectations in check folks.
