EXCLUSIVE: Annette Bening is joining Maggie Gyllenhaal‘s Frankenstein lore feature at Warner Bros; the studio making it official that this is a go-project. Cameras roll in Q1. This package with its attachments has been out there since it was at Netflix, and the deals have finally closed with everyone.
There’s already been word out there about the cast which includes a murderers’ row: Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Annette Bening, Penelope Cruz, and Peter Sarsgaard. Bale and Buckley have been circling this project well before the strikes.
Buckley is the star, I understand, in what is a movie about Frankenstein’s pursuit of love.
Logline: A lonely Frankenstein travels to 1930s Chicago to seek the aide of a Dr. Euphronius in creating a companion for himself. The two reinvigorate a murdered young woman and the Bride is born. She is beyond what either of them intended, igniting a combustible romance, the attention of the police and a wild and radical social movement.
The movie is being produced by Emma Tillinger Koskoff (Academy Award-nominee The Joker, The Irishman, The Wolf of Wall Street), Gyllenhaal, Talia Kleinhendler (The Lost Daughter), and Osnant Handelsman-Keren (The Lost Daughter). EPs are Courtney Kivowitz (The Lost Daughter) and Carla Raij (Maestro, The Fablemans).
Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group’s Co-Chairs and CEOs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy are looking to build upon the studio’s track record with female filmmakers, read, Greta Gerwig who helmed the studi’s biggest grossing movie of all-time in Barbie. Furthermore, De Luca and Abdy have been champs for females filmmakers; their Women Talking at MGM from Sarah Polley earned an adapted screenwriting Oscar and a Best Picture nomination.
Gyllenhaal is an Oscar-nominated actress, director, producer and screenwriter. Her screen adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s novel, The Lost Daughter, starring Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, and Jessie Buckley, which she adapted, was nominated for three Oscars: Best Actress (Colman), Best Supporting Actress (Buckley) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Gyllenhaal). Gyllenhaal is represented by MGMT Entertainment, WME, and Felker Toczek Suddleson Abramson McGinnis Ryan.
Bening is currently starring in the Netflix movie, NYAD, from Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, for which she received a Golden Globe and SAG Best Actress nomination. She is a 4x Oscar nominee for Grifters (supporting actress), American Beauty (Lead Actress), Being Julia (Lead Actress) and The Kids Are Alright (Lead Actress). Bening received a Tony Award nomination and won the Clarence Derwent Award for Outstanding Debut Performance of the Season for her role in Coatal Disturbances. She is represented by CAA and Gochman Law Group.
Oscar-Nominee and Olivier Award-Winner Buckley is known for her roles in Women Talking, The Lost Daughter, I’m Thinking of Ending Things and Wild Rose. Buckley can currently be seen in Apple TV+ and Christos Nikou’s Sci-Fi Romance Fingernails opposite Riz Ahmed, and she will reunite with Olivia Colman in the comedy-drama Wicked Little Letters. She is represented by United Agents, CAA and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole.
Bale is a 4x Oscar nominee, and won Best Supporting Actor in 2011 for The Fighter. He was nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars for Vice and American Hustle and Best Supporting Actor for The Big Short. He is represented by WME, and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman, Smelkinson & Christopher, LLP.
Academy Award-winner and three-time nominee Penélope Cruz. She is the first actress from Spain to be nominated for and win an Academy Award. Past credits include Don’t Move, Volver, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and Nine. In 2021, she starred in Pedro Almodóvar’s Parallel Mothers, which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress and the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the 2021 Venice Film Festival. She currently stars alongside Adam Driver and Shailene Woodley in Michael Mann’s Ferrari. Cruz is represented by CAA, Untitled Entertainment, and Kuranda Management.
Peter Sarsgaard is an Emmy Award-nominated actor who is renowned for his range and ability to access what is behind the often-complicated facades of the characters he plays. On the big screen, Sarsgaard first received wide acclaim for his role in Kimberly Pierce’s Boys Don’t Cry. His film roles include Antoine Fuqua’s The Guilty and Fuqua’s The Magnificent Seven; Michael Almereyda’s Experimenter; Pablo Larrain’s award-winning film Jackie;Scott Cooper’s Black Mass; Ed Zwick’s Pawn Sacrifice, Kelly Reichardt’s Night Moves, Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine; Mike White’s Year of the Dog; Sam Mendes’s Jarhead; Bill Condon’s Kinsey, Zach Braff’s Garden State; and Shattered Glass, for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe. He was recently seen in Matt Reeve’s The Batman and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter; Coup! and Pet Shop Days, which both premiered at the Venice International Film Festival. Sarsgaard will next be seen in Michel Franco’s Memory, opposite Jessica Chastain. Sarsgaard was awarded the Volpi Cup for best actor at the 2023 Venice International Film Festival for his performance. He is represented by WME and Anonymous Content.
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