7. Frankenstein
What is it? Frequently discussed by Del Toro as an upcoming future project during his period working on The Hobbit, his Frankenstein was part of a multi-film deal with Universal back in 2008. Promising to combine elements from the studio's classic 1930s adaptations starring Boris Karloff, with elements of Mary Shelley's own life story, and Frank Darabont's "near perfect" script that was eventually adapted into 1993's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Del Toro sought to make Frankenstein as "a Miltonian tragedy". Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy collaborator Doug Jones was announced in 2009 as playing the creature, but Del Toro said then that production would not begin for another four years. During press for Pacific Rim, he continued to describe Frankenstein as "a dream project" and one for which he would take a three year sabbatical to get it right. Why won't it happen? Because in eight years since this project was mooted, all there's been is just talk. Del Toro hasn't honoured his commitment to make a bunch of movies for Universal and, perhaps more significantly, the studio really don't seem to know how best to use the potential cash cow of their monster series. While Del Toro referred in 2014 to conversations with Universal exec Donna Langley about keeping the project alive, the studio appears to have bigger plans for a shared monsters universe following the teaser at the end of the tedious Dracula Untold. New versions of The Mummy and Van Helsing (the latter another project once linked with Del Toro) are rumoured to be in pre-production, which would pretty much prevent any non-shared universe Universal monster picture from appearing in the meantime. And all this is assuming that there is any market for another Frankenstein after the lacklustre Victor Frankenstein and the inhuman abomination of I, Frankenstein.