Javier Bardem Wanted to Give Life to Frankenstein
A lot of people like to call the modern Marvel Cinematic Universe the new Westerns; however a better comparison would be the classic Universal Monster films.
They actually were connected back in the day; their continuity wasn’t the most consistent, but for the time period it can be excused. So with all the major studios trying to build their own interconnected universes it makes a certain amount of sense for Universal to try to redo it with their monster movies. Now they seem to have found an actor for possibly their most famous monster or at least the one their classic films help define the most, the Frankenstein monster will now be played by Javier Bardem.
So who do we already have assembled for this universe? Besides Luke Evans as Dracula which we already got to see in 2014’s “Dracula Untold”. Well we know we have Tom Cruise playing the as of yet unrevealed hero of “The Mummy” reboot. Newcomer Sofia Boutella is signed as the title role, the 
Mummy. Russell Crowe as Dr. Henry Jekyll who will be first introduced in “The Mummy” reboot before getting his own film. Lastly, we have Johnny Depp as the Invisible Man. No word on the Wolf Man, Creature from the Black Lagoon or Pr Van Helsing though I’d imagine those will be coming soon. So needless to say Javier Bardem would be in good company if this rumor turns out to be true.
I find it interesting that unlike say the MCU, (whose formula they’re trying to copy) they seem to be mostly going after bigger name older actors mostly as opposed to the younger less expensive ones Marvel went after. Universal certainly has money to throw around, but that could add up. Also, it may make a big crossover film (like the “House of …” films of the 40s) difficult to coordinate with all of these big star’s schedules. Only time will tell. The next film in this experiment will be “The Mummy” reboot set to be released on June 9th 2017.
This was first reported by Variety.
