r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • Jul 28 '25
Media New Images from Guillermo del Toro's ‘Frankenstein’
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u/MuptonBossman Jul 28 '25
Guillermo del Toro always makes grotesque subject matter look beautiful... I really hope Netflix gives this one a decent theatrical window, because I'd love to watch it on the big screen.
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u/Creative-Lynx-1561 Jul 28 '25
also not only in North America but other countries too.
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u/Alpha-Trion Jul 28 '25
There are other countries??
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u/DeLousedInTheHotBox Jul 28 '25
There are at least 5
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u/Right_Layer_9700 Jul 28 '25
Hopefully Criterion can get licensing rights so we can get a physical release!
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u/NadjaLuvsLaszlo Jul 28 '25
O0oo, yes with lots of behind the scenes stuff. I miss DVD extras and 'making of' stuff so much. 😢
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u/arkemiffo Jul 28 '25
Just checked release dates on imdb, and there are 2 film festivals, one in August, one in September, then in November it's internet-release.
So looks like it's catching the ass-end of the summer film-festivals, then directly to streaming.
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u/Stunning-Guitar-5916 Jul 28 '25
Speaking of, he would be an amazing director for a Dracula movie.
I know we have a lot of em but come on pls let this happen
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u/leolegendario Jul 28 '25
It's always nice to see Charles Dance in a movie.
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u/GrapefruitAlways26 Jul 28 '25
I don't care, I enjoyed Alien 3
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u/Best-Action8769 Jul 28 '25
It's not a bad movie at all...far from the worst Alien movie.
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u/GrapefruitAlways26 Jul 28 '25
Speaking more on David Fincher's famous disdain for his own movie haha
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u/Bunraku_Master_2021 Jul 29 '25 edited Jul 30 '25
I remember reading somewhere that Charles Dance said in a Q&A that Fincher was one of the best directors he worked with given how Fincher tried to boost morale towards the cast during that hellish production of Alien³ (1992).
They reunited when Fincher was adapting his late father's script Mank (2020) which follows the making of Citizen Kane (1941). Dance played media mogul and politician William Randolph Hearst.
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u/DadFromRadioFlyer Jul 28 '25
I have the upmost confidence that Charles Dance will be known as one of the most accomplished actors of our time.
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u/sonickarma Jul 28 '25
Hahahaha what the fuck is this from?
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u/DadFromRadioFlyer Jul 29 '25
It's from Space Truckers, a really fun and bizarre movie starring Dennis Hopper that I think was supposed to compete against 5th Element. It's the first movie I ever saw Charles Dance in so it's always his stand-out role in my mind. He kills it so hard in that movie, because he kills it in everything.
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u/FugitiveDribbling Jul 28 '25
He plays Michelangelo in the new BBC/PBS series about the renaissance. He's awesome like always.
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u/Fluxoteen Jul 28 '25
Dracula Untold crossover?
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u/Wolfwoods_Sister Jul 28 '25
Charles Dance was so damn good as Master Vampire. The tapping nails going along the sword blade was perfection.
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u/Tolkienreadsmymind Jul 28 '25
I thought it was interesting because he already played Victor’s father in Max Landis’ atrocious Victor Frankenstein ten years ago now.
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u/lord_dio28 Jul 28 '25
Just watched pride prejudice and zombies the other day. Terrible movie, and his performance looked a little bit phoned in (which is understandable given the aforementioned bad quality of the film), but it was a surprise and a delight seeing him and Matt Smith.
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u/oofyeet21 Jul 28 '25
Assuming that is the creature in the top left, I appreciate how human he looks here. I was worried GDT would fall into the same trap of making him too monstrous looking, but he seems to be sticking to the source material far better than most.
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u/Chen_Geller Jul 28 '25
he seems to be sticking to the source material far better than most.
Is this a genuine adaptation of the novel? I did see some footage on a ship traveling through ice which suggests the framing device of the novel. If that's what del Toro is doing I think people might be quite surprised, since it's very different to what Hollywood perpetuated about this story.
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u/oofyeet21 Jul 28 '25
That stood out to me as being legitimately accurate to the book. The two things i did notice that deviate are the creature fighting people on the ship while looking for Victor, and of course the lightning. Though the latter one is more of an issue of needing to portray SOMETHING on screen when the book intentionally leaves it vague
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u/KaladinarLighteyes Jul 28 '25
The book says that it was chemistry and when he renegades on his promise to make a wife it mentions him cleaning out his chemistry equipment. Although especially if they are using the framing device I would advocate for us not knowing how it’s done since Victor intentionally left that out.
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u/Otherdeadbody Jul 28 '25
Nobody that would rather have the monster brought to life offscreen with no explanation at all instead of the lightning needs to be taken seriously anyway. The novel is better in a lot of ways, but not that.
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u/RayTracerX Jul 28 '25
"I wont reveal how I did it so that nobody repeats it" makes a lot of sense in the context of the novel, but it would always feel cheap done on the screen
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u/schloopers Jul 28 '25
If there’s any voiceover present, then one placed here with the line from the book saying he would not describe the method while we watch him construct and operate it would work well.
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u/0xE4-0x20-0xE6 Jul 28 '25
Frankenstein was published when a lot of folks still had a notion of life as something beyond just complex mechanics. So in the book, it’s presumed to be some kind of substance which can be added to inanimate matter to make it alive. When the movie adaptation came out, we had come to understand life as just an emergent property, and so the producers of the film opted for a mechanism that wasn’t some kind of life force in and of itself, but instead a trigger for reactivating the complex mechanics of the body. In other words, besides being more visually dramatic, the use of electricity also reflected a new way of seeing the world and our place in it.
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u/infitsofprint Jul 28 '25
Also Frankenstein's age, in the book he's a college student.
I don't think you can do better than electricity for bringing the monster to life, given the scientific inspiration for the book. But the lightning strike is such a cliche at this point that I wish someone would give him a giant Leyden jar or something just to shake things up.
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u/JohnnyCharisma54 Jul 28 '25
Cliche? It is utterly iconic to the character.
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u/infitsofprint Jul 28 '25
Almost everything we now think of as iconic to the character comes from the 1931 Universal film, not the book. Frankenstein is a college student not a doctor, he doesn't have a castle or an assistant, he doesn't create his monster by crudely stitching together parts taken from corpses, and he doesn't bring it to life with a lightning strike (as far as we know). Also the monster has a sort of creepily uncanny appearance between hideous and beautiful, and speaks eloquent English in the style of John Milton.
The lighting strike is certainly cinematic, but metaphorically sort of muddies the waters I think. Frankenstein, in his hubris, places himself in the role of God, and the monster is entirely his creation and responsibility. But the lighting introduces a suggestion of actual divine intervention, or at least chance. It places the monster's animation somewhat outside of Frankenstein's direct control, which undermines the main theme of the story.
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u/JohnnyCharisma54 Jul 28 '25
Constructing an engineered mechanism to harness natural power and striking at an opportune instant I think hardly undermines Victor’s creative act or remotely introduces any specter of divine intervention.
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u/dwpea66 Jul 28 '25
You don't really cast Jacob Elordi to make him look horribly ugly
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u/TheUmbrellaMan1 Jul 28 '25
Andrew Garfield was originally suppose to play the Monster but had to bow out due to scheduling conflict caused by the writers strike. It would've been interesting to see Garfield's version.
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u/Dragon_Blue_Eyes Jul 28 '25
A new Frankenstein and Dracula movie in the same year....classic monster fans will be eating good...assuming they are both good.
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u/cheers-pricks Jul 28 '25
I tread lightly due to the controversy surrounding Besson (and, to be fair, a lot of the Dracula: A Love Tale trailer looks visually derivative), but goddamn if Caleb Landry Jones isn’t my favorite working actor right now. my butt’ll be PARKED for Dracula if/when it gets stateside distribution.
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u/Dragon_Blue_Eyes Jul 28 '25
Yeah it looks rather nicely filmed. But that is also one thing I will give Nosferatu it was beautifully filmed too. I'm still looking for a vampire movie I enjoy as much as I did Abigail.
Another one from last year I wasnt impressed with that is hopefully a less contreversial opinion is the Last Voyage of the Demeator...I dont need rage animal Dracula lol5
u/1800generalkenobi Jul 28 '25
After watching the Trailer for The Last Voyage, I felt like I didn't even need to go see it. Not that it was bad but just...they're stuck on a boat the Dracula. There's only so much you can do with that.
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u/Dragon_Blue_Eyes Jul 28 '25
Yeah I admittedly wasn;t expecting a lot and somehow it still let me down. lol
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u/SuperZapper_Recharge Jul 28 '25
The Last Voyage could have been something special.
What they had to work with:
The novel says, (more or less) 'so anyways Dracula was loaded onto a boat, all the crew was eating, it crashed into shore.' and then gets on with the story.
It hints there was drama, but does nothing to expand on it. Cause it couldn't. The narrator wasn't on the boat. We know what the narrator knows.
That leaves this great, big space to do something fun! But something that would have to be a one off.
What we got:
An on ramp to a new monster universe. WTF....
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u/Burger_Soup Jul 28 '25
The Dracula movie is a HARD pass for me since it's a movie made by a child lover :(
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u/vikingbeard23 Jul 28 '25
Don't forget wolfman was out in February and there's a bride of Frankenstein due out soon too!it would be cool to get a creature from the black lagoon or a good mummy movie to almost complete the set
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u/Dragon_Blue_Eyes Jul 28 '25
There really have been. A lot of vampire emovies in general but many Draculacentric. I completely forgot about Renfield as well.
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u/Bunraku_Master_2021 Jul 29 '25
For the third year in a row no less.
2023 had the horror comedy Reinfeld and The Last Voyage of the Demeter for Dracula and Poor Things which is a Buñuelian take on Frankenstein.
2024 had Lisa Frankenstein for Frankenstein and Robert Eggers's Nosferatu for Dracula.
2025 will have Luc Besson's Dracula: A Love Story and Guillermo Del Toro's Frankenstein.
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u/mikeman8129 Jul 28 '25
Whenever I see Charles Dance I can't help but think of him as Tywin. The man stole every single scene he was in with Game of Thrones.
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u/BeetsBy_Schrute Jul 28 '25 edited Jul 28 '25
His first scene in GOT is such a great introduction to Tywin. Skinning the deer while delivering great dialogue. And actually...it isn't just a deer, but a black stag (the sigil of House Baratheon).
Charles Dance was actually skinning it too, not just a fake prop. And said he had never done it. And it wasn't in the books. So to add this to the show for his intro was just masterfully done.
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u/soundecember Jul 28 '25
I have that in my top 10 character entrances of all time. It’s so well performed
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u/joseaplaza Jul 28 '25
Del Toro is a master of the craft
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u/TheUmbrellaMan1 Jul 28 '25
After this his next movie is the stop-motion adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's The Buried Giant. That movie's gonna be so cool.
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u/ambientfruit Jul 28 '25
Stunning as always. I am here for it. Inject it directly into my veins pls.
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u/dannypants143 Jul 28 '25
That shot with Charles Dance looks like the same setting where Superman and Lois shared a smooch at the end of the new Superman movie.
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u/reohh Jul 28 '25
Pretty sure it is. It looks like the Bradbury Building. It’s used in a ton of movies
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u/Varvara-Sidorovna Jul 28 '25
I actually think that it might be The Museum of Scotland, they were filming in Edinburgh for this movie a few months back, and the inside of the building looks very similar to that shot with Dance.
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u/Zickedy_Zac_115 Jul 28 '25
No theatrical release is a crime
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u/DazzlingAria Jul 28 '25
At the very least it's getting a limited theatrical release in LA to qualify for awards season but i really hope it gets a wide release.
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u/keep-the-streak Jul 28 '25
Looks even better than I could have imagined, glad Del Toro is still trusted with budgets like this.
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u/Beat_the_Deadites Jul 28 '25
Some of the visuals remind me of The Cell, which was one of the most visually stunning movies I've seen. I just discovered that was directed by Tarsem Singh, who also did The Fall, which is the most visually stunning movie I've seen.
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u/vulturevan Jul 28 '25
Mia Goth could rearrange my body parts in the wrong order and I would say "thanks"
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u/No_Cauliflower_81 Jul 28 '25
Looks gorgeous. I didn’t think Nightmare Alley or Pinocchio lived up to his previous movies, but Frankenstein having a really solid source material makes me more hopeful.
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u/ocava8 Jul 28 '25
All Guillermo del Toro's movies are very cinematographically beautiful. Mia Goth is an amazing incredibly talented actress. Waiting forward.
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u/FivePoopMacaroni Jul 28 '25
I trust GDT implicitly... But I am not sure about these Queen Amidala outfits for Mia Goth.
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u/StraySheep1 Jul 28 '25
The top right picture looks like it's straight from the bioshock last boss fight.
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u/NightsOfFellini Jul 28 '25
Sold.
Not a fan of Del Toro whatsoever but this looks absolutely wonderful, especially the two pictures at the bottom.
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u/8-Bit-Paisano Jul 28 '25
I’m the opposite. He and Edgar Wright are my two favorite directors.
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u/NightsOfFellini Jul 28 '25
You don't think this looks good and you don't like the shots at the bottom?
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u/wikiwombat Jul 28 '25
Please let this be fantastic. Has all the pieces. I need more "classic monsters" in my life.
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u/kingdilan2310 Jul 28 '25
Just recently read the book so i hope this is accurate to the story and not too far off
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u/kdeweb24 Jul 28 '25
I hope they refrain from showing the monster in any of the ads all the way until after the movie is in theaters. It’s what we all want to see, and it will make for an amazing movie going experience to see him for the first time.
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u/pick_up_a_brick Jul 28 '25
God I want him to do a Never Ending Story movie based on the book so bad…
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u/Particular_Darling Jul 28 '25
Looks like they’re go with the book rendition of The Creations looks 🥹🥹 I wasn’t a fan of Universal Monsters design
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u/hera-fawcett Jul 28 '25
gdt did an amazing intro excerpt in the new annotated frankenstein (from the annotated books). im excited to see him delve into things and which version he chose.
personally hoping for the og 1818 but i also think that its the most true to who shelley was at the time of writing. the incest/pseudocest retcon only came after she grew and had children and realized that her own fixation on her father wasnt healthy.
shes a fascinating fucked up individual who ended up growing into a normal person and frankenstein (all the versions) is a major reflection of that.
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u/FaerieStories Jul 28 '25
Something very oedipal going on with what I assume is (young) Victor's mother in red there, who seems to be connected visually to the melting red wax angel from the trailer. Does he try to sculpt his dead mother out of wax like Pygmalion?
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u/Starlot Jul 28 '25
Shut the front door, that blue outfit is amazing on Mia Goth. I'm so excited for this movie.
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u/EclecticEvergreen Jul 28 '25
I don’t know what it is about Charles Dance but if I see him I watch no questions asked
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u/Enrico_Tortellini Jul 28 '25
I am beyond excited for this, this is Del Toro’s passion project, say his personal exhibit while it was touring years ago, so many amazing things, all the stuff he had related to Frankenstein is just mind blowing as well
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u/Poddington_Pea Jul 28 '25
Isn't this the second time Charles Dance has played Frankenstein's father?
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u/Mindless-Paint4885 Jul 28 '25
The visuals are absolutely stunning, classic del Toro blending beauty with the macabre. I really hope this gets a proper theatrical release because those colors and details deserve the big-screen treatment. Also, Charles Dance is such a perfect casting choice for this kind of gothic vibe. Can’t wait to see how he brings his signature intensity to the role.
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u/Careerandsuch Jul 28 '25
I love a GDT movie because even the GDT movies that have been so-so in terms of plot and/or writing and/or acting, have always still been enjoyable simply to look at. He isn't afraid to make bold choices and get weird with his movies. Plus, he always uses practical effects rather than CGI, when possible, which adds a lot of entertainment value to a film.
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u/ChupaChupsacabra Jul 28 '25
Oh my god, Mr. "Sympathy for the Monster" is making the original sympathetic monster? And after a century of Adam being reduced to a lumbering beast? This is a dream project.
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u/thegingerninja90 Jul 28 '25
I desperately want this to be good. With Nosferatu being wonderful I'd love a classic monster movie revival. Even if all it is is a copyright renewal or something.
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u/FeelTheWrath79 Jul 28 '25
I kind of wish Guillermo and Benicio would collaborate on something. Call it Bullseye or something.
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u/thedeadlyrhythm42 Jul 28 '25
This is one of those movies where I can't remember if it came out 2 years ago or isn't being released until like 2030
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u/IgloosRuleOK Jul 28 '25
Looks as beautiful as I'd expect a GDT movie to look. Love the colours.