An Eerie Mia Goth, Outlandish Costumes And Jacob Elordi As The Monster: Inside The World Of Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein

Of the countless starry, long-awaited blockbusters sailing to the Lido later this month for the 82nd edition of the Venice Film Festival, the buzziest of all, perhaps, is Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein. Thankfully, the triple Oscar winner’s new retelling of Mary Shelley’s Gothic classic, which he is directing, writing and producing, will then be released on Netflix in November, just a couple of months after its festival debut.

As in the original novel, and its countless onscreen depictions including 1931’s Frankenstein starring Boris Karloff, it’ll follow Victor Frankenstein, the pioneering scientist who conducts an unorthodox experiment that produces a terrifying creature. Jacob Elordi will play that hulking monster, taking over a role once snapped up by Andrew Garfield, who reportedly then departed the project as a result of strike-related scheduling conflicts. Opposite him? Oscar Isaac, of course, as the titular trailblazer.

To no one’s surprise, the prolific Mexican filmmaker has also assembled a stellar supporting cast: double Oscar winner Christoph Waltz, as an arms dealer and wealthy benefactor of Frankenstein’s; All Quiet on the Western Front’s Felix Kammerer as Victor’s kind-hearted younger brother; Mia Goth as that brother’s bride to be; Christian Convery as young Victor; The Witcher’s Lars Mikkelsen as a mysterious captain; and Game of Thrones’s David Bradley and Charles Dance, as the story’s wise old blind man and Victor’s formidable father, respectively.

The film’s release marks the fulfilment of a lifelong dream for del Toro and, by the looks of the first stills and trailer, he hasn’t skimped on the lavish spectacle of the sets, costumes, make-up and special effects. Expect to encounter cavernous, intricately-designed laboratories, Pan’s Labyrinth-esque wonderlands and extravagant, off-kilter period dress.

Could this big, bold, operatic swing lead the filmmaker back to the Academy Awards, where he cleaned up in 2018 with The Shape of Water? It’s certainly impossible to overlook the jaw-dropping work of production designer Tamara Deverell, costumer Kate Hawley and make-up artist Mike Hill, all of whom have yet to take home a golden statuette and could easily sweep the craft categories this time.

Beyond that, it’s still too early to tell – but if there’s one thing we know about del Toro, it’s that you can never count him out. He’s made a more-than-four-decade-long career out of defying expectations.

This article was originally published on British Vogue.