Sherlock/Frankenstein Crowdsourced

Long time coming, Gautier Cazenave’s ambitious SHERLOCK HOLMES VS FRANKENSTEIN film has taken a big step forward after a very successful Indiegogo crowdsourcing operation. In June, the project scored an auspicious 117% of its initial 20,000 Euro goal, making an extended funding campaign possible. The new target is 40,000 Euros by August 31.

SHERLOCK HOLMES VS FRANKENSTEIN is a classic, old school gothic thriller. The Indiegogo site has a test teaser trailer, info on locations and props, and introductions to cast members, led by Shane Briant, reprising his role as Simon Helder, last seen assisting Peter Cushing In Hammer’s FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FORM HELL (1974). The Monster will be played by seven foot three actor John Lebar, recently the super-sized Ghost Engineer in Ridley Scott’s PROMETHEUS (2012).

Indiegogo page.

Project Blog.

Related:

SHERLOCK HOLMES VS FRANKENSTEIN

Rondo Awards : Frankensteinia scores 3 nominations!

2013 was a great year for Frankensteinia. 

Almost exactly a year ago, I traveled to Paris and London where I did some serious research for this blog and I was treated, thanks to my friend David Saunderson of The Spooky Isles, to an unforgettable “Frankensteinia Night” at a London pub with invited genre writers, film historians, editors and publishers and other instant friends, a dozen in all. It was a memorable kick off to the year and, now, to bookend the backend, the 12th Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards have been announced and I am delighted and frankly excited that Frankensteinia has generated three nominations!

Here they are, for your kind consideration…

1) Frankensteinia has been nominated as Best Blog!

Here’s hoping we can get over the hump after coming in First Runner-Up the last two times out! I am very proud of our offerings this past year. Some highlights:

We found some rare Frankenstein appearances, notably Billy De Wolfe’s comic turn in BLUE SKIES (1946) here and here, and a couple of British entries in THURSDAY’S CHILD (1943) here and here, and DANCE HALL (1950) here.

Doing some Frankenstein archeology, we found the site of the bakery that inspired the Windmill scene in the original FRANKENSTEIN of 1931. A great photo of Ed Payson in the makeup chair turned up, halfway through his transformation into the Frankenstein Monster for the 3-D short THIRD DIMENSIONAL MURDER (1941). In a perfect case of Monster Kid prehistory, we discovered what is one of the earliest, if not very first incident of Frankenstein cosplay, so to speak, in a press review entitled Gandhi Hob-Knobs with Frankenstein from February 1932. Also (with thanks to our friend George Chastain), we dug up a pre-Famous Monsters Forry Ackerman article entitled Frankenstein’s Bébé — Brigitte Bardot!

A personal favorite from 2013 was my Shock Theater Frankenstein series of articles revealing the early promotional efforts and rubber-mask Frankenstein appearances that helped launch the Monster Boom back in the Fifties.

2) The Peter Cushing Centennial Blogathon is up for Best Fan Event!

Saint Peter’s anniversary was celebrated with the help of 30 bloggers, contributing some 80 fabulous articles, reviews, opinions, revelations and loving appreciations.

3) Richard Harland Smith’s contribution to the Peter Cushing Blogathon, The Peter Cushing Nobody Knows, is up for Best Article!

RHS has been a friend of Frankensteinia from day one and I was knocked out by his brilliant essay on Cushing’s early, non-horror roles, posted over at TCM’s Movie Morlocks. Smith is also nominated for Best Commentary for THE DEVIL BAT.

There you have it. Now it’s your turn: You have until May 5 to vote, but don’t wait: You can vote right now, in as many or as few categories as you are comfortable with, and it’s all done painlessly through email.

Should you wish to support our nominations, vote Frankensteinia in Category 19, Best Blog; Peter Cushing Centennial Blogathon in Category 21, Best Fan Event, and The Peter Cushing Nobody Knows by Richard Harland Smith in Category 13, Best Article.

If you enjoy this blog, you are also welcome to include yours truly, Pierre Fournier, in the write-in Category 28, Best Writer.

Here’s the Rondo Ballot, with tons of great stuff to discover. Congratulations to ALL the nominees!

Countdown!

Autumn has kicked in and though the days grow cool, most of us congregating here get our chills from monster movies and the promise of Halloween! October is coming up fast, and we’ll be joining the annual Countdown to Halloween event run by the intrepid John Rozum — assisted by Shawn Robare and John K — bringing bloggers together in celebration of All Hallows Eve and everything that makes it our favorite holiday. Over 200 (!) blogs participated last year, no doubt more to come this time around. It’s all great fun and a great way to discover blogs you’ll want to return to. 

A complete list of participating bloggers will be posted throughout October on the Countdown to Halloween site.

Posting will be picking up here over the next few days and you should expect a very busy Fall on Frankensteinia. Recent sparse postings here are attributable to professional obligations, but I’ve stockpiled some neat stuff and I’m eager to share. I’ve been called to travel a lot over the last 18 months and I managed to get some serious Frankenstein research done in New York, London and Paris, notably at the NY Public Library and the British National Portrait Gallery. Some of the posts on tap I have been carefully researching for over a year now. Can’t wait to spring some discoveries on you.

Over the summer months, this blog celebrated its sixth anniversary, good for an accumulated 1.1 million visitors and 1.75 million page views. Mind-boggling, heartening numbers. Thank you for visiting, stand by for more.

Now grab a pumpkin and start carving!

Frankensteinia Night Report

Oh, how I miss my London friends! Heartfelt thanks to David Saunderson who brought a dozen of us together Tuesday last, February 12, at the Doric Arch Pub to celebrate Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, our love of monsters and newfound friendships. Posing here: My giant friend, musician Dave Swift; David Saunderson of Spooky Isles; that’s me in the middle, running ragged, 15 days into my European trip; Chris Priestley, author of Mister Creecher, and Stephen Jacobs, author of Boris Karloff: More Than a Monster.

My fondest wish is to return, to see you all again, and spend more time with you. We really must do this more often!

Now I’m back home and cranking up the blog. I did some research in Paris and London — notably a very enlightening visit to the archives at the National Portrait Gallery — and I’ll be sharing new information and photos here after I sort everything out.

Regular posting resumes tomorrow!

Frankensteinia Night in London!

Posting here has been rather sparse recently as I have been busy with professional pursuits, promoting my books as co-creator/writer of the Red Ketchup series of graphic novels. Now I’m putting the blog on a short hiatus as I’ll be traveling over the next three weeks, first to the Angoulème comics festival in France, and then on to Paris and London on a bit of an off-season vacation combined with some on-the-spot Frankenstein and Mary Shelley research. I think I’ll have some interesting new information to share with you when I get back.

If you are in Angoulème this week — January 31 to February 3 — pop over and say hello! I’ll be at the La Pastèque stand, #N11. And if you’re anywhere near London on February 12, come celebrate Frankensteinia Night!

My friend David Saunderson of the splendid Spooky Isles blog and Spooky London Pubs is honoring Frankensteinia and having me as a guest for a casual, friendly meetup at the Doric Arch Pub on Tuesday, February 12. Also present will be We Belong Dead editor Eric McNaughton; fellow Rondo Award winner Stephen Jacobs, author of Boris Karloff: More than a Monster; Howard Jackson of Red Rattle Books, publisher of Frankenstein Galvanised, and Chris Priestley, author of Mister Creecher and other suitably spooky books. Festivities begin at 7PM, and we’ll all make a short hop over to nearby Polygon Square where Mary Shelley was born.

All you have to do is show up. I’d love to meet you! If you want to let us know you’re coming, leave a note at the Spooky London Pubs site, or on the event's Facebook page.

Frankensteinia, the Frankenstein Blog, will be back online on Saint-Valentine’s Day. 
See you soon!

Found! Frankenstein inscribed by Mary Shelley to Lord Byron!

A true treasure has come to light: A rare, first edition copy of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, inscribed “To Lord Byron from the author”.

The book was among the possessions of Baron Jay (1907-1996), a British politician and one time President of the Board of Trade. The discovery was made by the Baron’s grandson, bibliophile Sammy Jay. Although Mary Shelley did not sign her name, her writing has been verified by an expert of the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford, where Mary’s manuscript pages of Frankenstein are kept.

It was Lord Byron who, in the summer of 1816, invited the Shelleys to join him at Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva, and it was Byron who proposed a friendly competition, to come up with ghost stories. Mary’s idea grew into the novel, Frankenstein, and published on New Year’s Day, 1818. The copy at hand is one of only six copies given Mary by her publisher. Inscribed, it was mailed to Byron by Mary’s husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley. Lord Byron once recommended the book to a friend, saying, “Methinks it is a wonderful work of a girl of nineteen — not nineteen indeed — at the time”.

First edition copies of Frankenstein are rare and can fetch upwards of $100,000. Until now, only one other signed copy was known to exist, and although this new find is incomplete — originally published as three slim books, here, only the first volume has survived — it was inscribed to and once owned by Lord Byron who, as it were, attended the birth of Frankenstein. Given the remarkable provenance, this unique copy is estimated to be worth over £400,000 (roughly US$635,000).

The book will be displayed for one week, beginning September 26, at Peter Harrington’s of Chelsea, London, one of the world’s leading rare book dealers.

Read more about Lord Byron’s copy of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein on the Peter Harrington website.

Via PR Newswire Service

Sherlock Holmes vs Frankenstein

The Great Detective and Dr. Watson are called to Darmstadt, Germany, to investigate a curious case of purloined corpses and strange goings-on at Castle Frankenstein. That's the springboard for Sherlock Holmes vs Frankenstein, currently in pre-production from director Gautier Cazenave’s Marteau Films of France, in collaboration with the UK-based Parkland Pictures. The film shoots later this year.

In an inspired bit of casting, Shane Briant, once Peter Cushing’s assistant in Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974), Hammer’s last Frankenstein film, will return to the saga as the Burgomeister. Also appearing is actor Clement von Franckenstein — the real Baron Frankenstein — cast as… Baron Frankenstein!

The atmospheric poster was created by Gil Jouin who collaborated for over 15 years with his father, Michel Jouin, famous for his film poster work on the French release of such titles as Return of the Jedi and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Gil Jouin’s solo work has also been celebrated, winning the Best Film Poster Cesar — the French Oscar — for the film Cinema Paradiso in 1990.

We’ll report back on Sherlock Holmes vs Frankenstein as the project evolves. 

For Your Consideration

Nominations for the Tenth Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards have been announced and I am thrilled and honored to have picked up two noms this year. The Rondos celebrate “the best in monster research, creativity and film preservation”.

Frankensteinia is up for Best Blog again, our fifth consecutive nomination. We won last year and I don’t know what the odds are of repeating, but I’d like to think 2011 was our best year yet.

I’m also up for a Rondo in the Best Article category for my piece celebrating the 80th Anniversary of Frankenstein, published in Monsterpalooza #1. It’s called Dare You See It? and it tracks how the film and its Monster percolated into the public consciousness through newspaper coverage and early ballyhoo. I’m delighted with this nomination as I’ve written and published a lot through the years, but this was my first magazine article in English. You can order Monsterpalooza direct from the publisher.

Congratulations and best of luck to all the nominees!

The Rondo Awards.

New Blog! FRANKENSTEIN FOREVER!

Carved pumpkins staring out living room windows at makeshift graveyards planted with cardboard tombstones. Stuffed scarecrows lounging on the doorstep and a plastic skeleton, wrapped in cotton cobwebs, swinging from a tree. Ghosts ring your doorbell and spare you for a piece of candy. It’s Halloween, and it’s a fine time for launching a new blog, especially a skeery one!

With the appropriate help of the venerable Edward van Sloan, who famously introduced James Whale’s Frankenstein eighty years ago, allow me to introduce FRANKENSTEIN FOREVER, the new companion blog to Frankensteinia!

FRANKENSTEIN FOREVER is a tumblelog of Frankenstein images, Frankenstein links and Frankenstein news, for Frankenstein fans.

You might well ask why a new Frankenstein blog, and what for? Simply said, I like Frankensteinia as it is. I want Frankensteinia to be informative, sometimes scholarly — yet unpretentious and, I hope, mostly entertaining. Still, I have tons of material on hand, more than I can handle. There are new Frankenstein books and comics, plays and films, toys and games coming out every week, an endless supply of material that I hardly ever get around to. I’ve considered posting here every day, filling the gaps between detailed posts with images and news, but I feel that would change the focus and my self-imposed mandate on Frankensteinia. A new, complementary but separate blog is the answer.

FRANKENSTEIN FOREVER will serve as a repository, a gallery, a museum perhaps, of Frankenstein-related images. FRANKENSTEIN FOREVER will feature links to new Frankenstein events as they happen. FRANKENSTEIN FOREVER will showcase more artists and illustrators than I have ever had room for on Frankensteinia.

You can reach FRANKENSTEIN FOREVER through the badge on the menu at right, or you might want to bookmark it for direct access. Should you make FRANKENSTEIN FOREVER your first stop, I’ll be sure to post a heads-up there whenever a new post is up here on Frankensteinia.

Frankensteinia will essentially remain the same. It works, I’m happy with it and proud of its success. Now’s the time to expand on the concept, and that’s what FRANKENSTEIN FOREVER is meant for.

FRANKENSTEIN FOREVER is alive NOW. Go Look!

Monsterpalooza Magazine, Hot Off The Press!

Here’s a real Halloween-time treat: The inaugural issue of Monsterpalooza Magazine is out now!

Published and edited by Mark Redfield and Michael Heisler, beautifully designed by Theresa Ratajczak, Monsterpalooza celebrates monsters, old school to cutting edge.

I’m honored to contribute and humbled to share its pages with writers such as Gary Don Rhodes, Ted Newsom, Raymond Castile, Anthony Taylor, and artists Frank Dietz and George Chastain, to name but a few of the all-star contributors.

Marking the 80^th anniversary of James Whale’s Frankenstein, my article, Dare You See It?, tracks gossip and newspaper articles published early in 1931 as the film was being conceived and created. The article is illustrated with examples of the newspaper ads and ballyhoo that attended Frankenstein’s late autumn release. Together, these parallel narratives explore how the film and its now iconic Monster first percolated into the public consciousness.

Monsterpalooza No. 1 is available now, directly from the publisher. Here’s the magazine’s website and Facebook Page, here’s a special sneak peek at what’s inside the first issue, and here’s how to order your copy of Monsterpalooza Magazine!

Counting Down to Halloween

Temps dipped way down last night, right on cue. Then the wind picked up, caught in a window with an eerie ghost moan and I thought, yeah, that makes it official: Autumn is here, and Halloween season is underway.

This is a time for cultivating goosebumps and embracing fears. Time to shake our skeletons loose and send them out to dance in the moonlight. This is when we stand up to Death itself, shining a flashlight under our chins and scaring it right back.

I like to think it’s Halloween everyday on Frankensteinia but, still, things get busier and the posting cranks up here in October. And once again, I am participating in the big Countdown to Halloween event organized by — and with congratulations to — John Rozum, Jon K. and Shawn Robare. Thanks, guys!

Click the Countdown badge on the menu and you’ll be taken to a jaw-dropping list of blogs, well over 200!, gone trick or treatin’ and celebrating Halloween all month long. Go look, you’ll have a blast. And check back here now and then. Boris and I are cooking up some scares for you all.

Announcing Monsterpalooza Magazine!

The Monster enjoys a little downtime in the dungeon, catching up on his pumpkin carving and getting a first look at Monsterpalooza Magazine, heading our way just in time for Halloween. The fabulous art is by Jeff Preston.

Otherwise independent, the new magazine shares its name and its love of monsters with Eliot Brodsky’s super convention held every spring in California. Monsterpalooza, the magazine, will be published and edited by Mark Redfield and Michael Heisler. The debut issue can be pre-ordered now through the Monsterpalooza Magazine website, launched today. Check the site for a list of eye-popping contents and contributor profiles. I’m delighted to report that I’ll be doing a piece celebrating the 80th Anniversary of Universal’s Frankenstein!

Monsterpalooza Magazine website and Facebook page.

Report from Fantasia

Proud to say I’ve got a guest post up at the Love Train for the Tenebrous Empire, covering the Fantasia Film Festival in Montréal and my review of Jean Rollin, The Stray Dreamer.

More from Fantasia coming up here and elsewhere. I’ll keep you posted.

Fantasia Festival 2011

The world class and world-beating Fantasia International Film Festival opens its fifteenth anniversary edition in Montréal today, July 14, and runs an incredible three weeks through August 7.

You can begin to appreciate the scope of this event by scanning the jaw-dropping schedule of features and shorts on view, all wrapped up in panels, live events and parties. Some of the highly anticipated films this year include Finland’s Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale — you’ll never think of Santa Claus the same way ever again — and Norway’s The Troll Hunter ­—you’ll never think of trolls the same way ever again, either. Director John Landis will present Burke and Hare, whose cast includes Christopher Lee, Jenny Agutter, and Ray Harryhausen! Robin Hardy will also be on hand to present The Wicker Tree, also featuring Sir Christopher, evoking — 38 years later — the spirit of the classic The Wicker Man.

Among the major events of Fantasia 2011 will be the world premiere of The Theatre Bizarre, a Grand Guignol anthology, in the presence of its seven directors (including Tom Savini) and cult star Udo Kier, and the feverishly anticipated official closing film, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, produced by Guillermo del Toro. This last one, in fact, is already sold out!

The Festival’s penultimate event is a showing of The Phantom of the Opera, with Lon Chaney, quote the Festival program: “Special gala event featuring a pristine 35mm print screened with a live original score composed by Gabriel Thibaudeau and performed by a 30-piece orchestra at the prestigious Théâtre Maisonneuve concert hall at Place des Arts!”

Frankenstein will pop up a few times through the festival. I’ll be reporting later this month on the Canadian-made Monster Brawl, a wrestling horror-comedy where our Monster goes up against a who’s who of horror creatures. Then there's a panel on “Hammer Film Mythology” followed by Terence Fisher’s Frankenstein Created Woman (1967).

An extended tribute honoring Canadian producers John Dunning and André Link will include a rare big-screen showing of Frankenstein 2000/The Vindicator (1986). Other Dunning & Link films shown include cult classics Shivers (1975), Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS (1975) and Les lèvres rouges/Daughters of Darkness (1971).

Too much to see — three weeks is too short a time! — but I’ll definitely get in line to catch the new documentary about director Jean Rollin, Le rêveur égaré (The Lost Dreamer). The screening includes a three-minute promo reel of Throat Sprockets, directed by the formidable Tim Lucas!

Time and sanity permitting, I’ll be reporting back on Fantasia 2011 in the days to come.

Wish you were here!

The Fantasia International Film Festival website carries the full schedule, film info and trailers.

Going to Louisville

Scream Queen Evelyn Ankers and Lon Chaney, Jr. in Monster gear pose to promote The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), one of several films the duo co-starred in, albeit reluctantly, in the Forties. Ms Ankers, it is said, was never fond of Chaney’s roughhouse manners and practical jokes. Ghost also featured Bela Lugosi as Ygor, the Monster’s Keeper, who gets to donate his brains to his jigsaw friend.

I’d like to think that Frankie is pointing to Louisville, Kentucky, where I’m off to this week to attend Wonderfest and the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards presentations on May 14. I’ll be picking up my Best Blog Rondo in person! I’m looking forward, excitedly, to meeting and partying with some of the bloggers, artists, writers, film historians and fellow fans I’ve met through Frankensteinia.

While I’m away, I’ll be re-running three of my favorite posts from last year. Yours to discover or enjoy anew.

See you next week.

FRANKENSTEINIA WINS RONDO AWARD FOR BEST BLOG

The Ninth Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards were announced on Wednesday night and I am thrilled to report that Frankensteinia has been voted BEST BLOG!

I’ll level with you. I never thought I could go all the way and win this award. I was immensely pleased with the nomination but I thought maybe this blog was too specialized, too focused on one subject to earn first place, as opposed to other blogs that reach far and wide and cover a comprehensive range of horror subjects. Then again, Frankenstein is Forever and I owe this blog’s success to the perennial popularity of Mary Shelley’s remarkable creation and our unending fascination with all its manifestations.

I also owe more than I can measure to those who have encouraged and supported me with their kind words and the bloggers who have so generously endorsed Frankensteinia on their own blogs, on Twitter and Facebook.

I send heartfelt thanks to Stacie Ponder of Final Girl and Tim Lucas of Video WatchBlog for their endorsements, especially as they were nominated in the Best Blog category along with me! I thank the mysterious Arbogast of Arbogast on Film and Greg Ferrara of Cinema Styles for their unremitting support. Thank you to Brian Solomon at The Vault of Horror and Erick Bognar of Wonderful Wonderblog. Thanks to Chris at Frog on the Pumpkin, Rogue Evolent of The Roads of Autumn Dusk and Mike at The Skull and the Pumpkin. Thanks to Mark Redfield, a supporter from day one, at An Actor’s Notebook, and thanks to Holger Hasse of Hammer and Beyond. I hope I haven’t forgotten anyone.

And then there’s Max Cheney, the nitwitty operator of The Drunken Severed Head blog, who went so far as to campaign for me! Max, last year’s Best Blog winner and nominated again this time, threw his support, his influence and the kitchen sink behind Frankensteinia. Back when I kicked off this blog in the summer of ’07, Max gave me my first review, my first link and became my first friend in horror blogdom. After all this time, I still can’t get rid of him. Max has always been generous with support, praise, advice and encouragement. He is a brother to me and a true and faithful ally. I cherish his friendship.

Thanks go out to David Colton and his accomplices for making the Rondos happen, a incredible achievement in and of itself.

Congratulations to all of this year’s Rondo nominees and winners. Celebrating personal favorites, allow me to congratulate Belle Dee, Best Fan Artist. And don’t let the “fan” tag fool you, Belle is a Pro through and through. Congratulations to Kim Newman, a favorite author of mine, who gets Rondoed as Best Reviewer, and Mark Redfield, a runner up for Best Interviewer. Hooray to Women in Horror Month as Best Fan Event and Bravo to the Rondo committee for splitting the Best Magazine Award into two categories, Mass and Fan Markets, allowing my two favorite magazines, Rue Morgue and Monsters from the Vault, to win Rondos. And Extra Special congrats to Tim and Donna Lucas, who hold my undying admiration, for being elevated to the Monster Kid Hall of Fame.

Finally, I want to thank all of YOU who follow Frankensteinia, especially the regulars who check in every few days. You keep me going.

Rondo Awards: The complete list of winners.

It's Rondo Time!

Have you voted yet? There are only 2 days to go! UPDATE: Voting extended to include Sunday March 27!

The Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award is “fandom's only classic horror award, decided by fans, for fans, and dedicated to preserving the undying spirit of monsters past.”

The ballot is huge and you get your say in a generous range of categories honoring horror films and DVDs, books, magazines, toys, websites, blogs, and lots more. You are welcome to vote in as many or as few categories as you’re comfortable with, but hurry up! Time is running out and voting closes this coming Saturday Sunday, at midnight on March 27.

This blog is nominated for a Rondo as Best Blog! Should you wish to support us, be sure to vote Frankensteinia in Category 16.

Here's the Rondo Ballot, and thank you for your kind consideration.

Frankenstein Live in Leeds

It’s Springtime for Frankenstein in the UK. Even as the National Theatre’s play triumphs in London, BBC Television is staging a major live event in Leeds this weekend. You are cordially invited to Frankenstein’s Wedding.

In Mary Shelley’s novel, Victor Frankenstein reneges on a promise to create a bride for the Creature who, betrayed, warns, “I shall be with you on your wedding-night!” That night has come, this Saturday evening, as Victor (Andrew Gower) and Elizabeth (Lacey Turner) tie the knot at Leeds’ Kirkstall Abbey, its majestic ruins bathed in lights.

An onsite audience expected to top 12,000 is invited to dress for the occasion and participate in a special wedding dance. Meanwhile, cameras will follow The Monster (David Harewood) as he makes his way through the city, intent on confronting his maker and bride-to-be.

Billed as a Romantic Horror Spectacular, the elaborate event, combining live drama, music and dance, goes live March 19 on BBC3 at 8PM, local time. It’ll also unfold on Twitter. Preparations and character “video profiles” are available to see on the BBC3 website, and on YouTube for viewers outside the UK.

Hopefully, the proceedings will be recorded and made available to the rest of the world.

BBC3 page for Frankenstein’s Wedding.

Video Diaries on YouTube: Victor, Elizabeth and The Creature (whose handheld camera may induce motion sickness!), and here’s the Audience Dance Tutorial.

The National Theatre's Frankenstein: The Reviews Are In

First up, here’s a trailer for the National Theatre’s production of Frankenstein, directed by Danny Boyle.

After 17 days in previews, the play was finally staged for the Press on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, two evenings being necessary to accommodate the alternate performances, with stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller swapping roles as Frankenstein and Creature.

The word is very good indeed. Critics unanimously praise Danny Boyle’s powerful and innovative stagings, conjuring up birds, rain and lightning, and his drawing out moving and mesmerizing performances from his actors.

The Guardian’s Michael Billington positions the play as “a humane, intelligent retelling of the original story in which much of the focus is on the plight of the obsessive scientist's sad creation, who becomes his alter ego and his nemesis.” He pronounces Danny Boyle’s staging as “brilliant” and “a bravura triumph in which Mark Tildesley's design provides a whole series of visual coups.”

Of the performances, Benedict Cumberbatch’s take on the Creature is “unforgettable”, with “an epic grandeur” about it. “He has humor as well as pathos.” Of Jonny Lee Miller’s version of the character, his strength “lies in his menace. Stockier than Cumberbatch, his Creature makes you believe in the character's Satanic impulse and in his capacity for murder.”

In The Telegraph, Charles Spenser reports that director Boyle “pulls off something truly spectacular here… there is no doubt that Frankenstein is the most viscerally exciting and visually stunning show in town.” Libby Purves of The Times calls it “a hell of a production: the set itself conveys unease, rising and revolving into harsh surprises.”

Nick Dear’s adaptation, overall satisfying, comes under mild reproach for some slow patches and, according to Patrick Marmion of The Daily Mail, dialogue that is often “drably pedestrian”, but he concludes that “this is a memorable production and will doubtless be spoken of for years to come."

Additional performances have been scheduled beyond the original planned run, but they’ll likely sell out before I finish this sentence. Nevertheless, everyone gets a chance to see this Frankenstein when it comes to cinemas worldwide on March 17, with some venues offering an alternate performance on March 24, and repeat showings. Check the National Theatre Live page for broadcast details and a list of venues.

The Daily Mail carries several excellent photographs from the production.

Related:
The National Theatre's Frankenstein

The National Theatre's Frankenstein

It is the hottest theater ticket in London. In March, it goes global with a live broadcast to cinemas. The Royal National Theatre is staging an ambitious new Frankenstein with a high profile cast and crew including playwright Nick Dear, director Danny Boyle, music by Underworld and actors Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller, seen in Creature makeup in the above photo.

Nick Dear and Danny Boyle first discussed the project in the early nineties, only to shelve it when the Kenneth Branagh/Robert DeNiro film was released. In the intervening years, Dear’s career as a playwright and screenwriter continued to flourish, while Danny Boyle stepped away from the stage and onto film sets, directing such titles as Trainspotting (1996) and 28 Days Later (2006), culminating with a Best Director Academy Award for Slumdog Millionaire (2008). Now he’s up for another Oscar as Best Director, as well as one for Best Film, for the harrowing real-life survival drama 127 Hours (2010).

Actor Jonny Lee Miller was in Boyle’s Trainspotting and, in an indirect Frankenstein connection, he played Lord Byron in a TV movie written by Nick Dear. Miller began his career as a child actor with a bit part in a 1982 episode of Doctor Who. Speaking of which, Benedict Cumberbatch, an avowed fan of the classic series, briefly considered taking over the Doctor’s part after David Tennant’s tenure. Instead, he took on the lead of BBC’s updated Sherlock (2010) to considerable critical and popular acclaim. Among his television roles, Cumberbatch played a young Stephen Hawking and Vincent Van Gogh.

Brought together for Frankenstein, Miller and Cumberbatch take turns, daily, at playing Victor Frankenstein and his Creature, a conceit that addresses the symbiotic relationship between the creator and his creation.

After barely one week in Preview mode, Frankenstein is already sold out for it’s entire original run, straight through April 17. Additional performances are being scheduled. Though the show won’t be subjected to press scrutiny until February 22nd, blogs and social networks are already abuzz with early if fannish reviews. No spoilers repeated here except to say that most of the talk is about a nude Monster and how the play needs to be tightened up — which is the whole point of the current shakedown period — though every performance to date has been crowned with a standing ovation.

Most everyone reading this will have a shot at seeing the play thanks to the National Theatre Live broadcasts to cinemas worldwide. Two performances are being beamed out in March. The March 17 show has Benedict Cumberbatch as The Creature and Jonny Lee Miller as Victor, with the roles reversed for the March 24 broadcast. Several venues are also scheduling repeat showings of the recorded performances.

Click The National Theatre Live to find a venue near you.

The National Theater’s Frankenstein page.

Frankenstein at the National Theatre, The Guardian.

Q&A: Playwright Nick Dear on Adapting Frankenstein, The Arts Desk.

An interview with Nick Dear, The Financial Times.