Aaron Eckhart Goes Monsterous Again For I, FRANKENSTEIN!

Best known for playing the handsome district attorney Harvey Dent who becomes the monstrously disfigured Two Face in The Dark Knight, actor Aaron Eckhart is set to make his face go all ugly again in another Hollywood blockbuster that begins filming in Australia in January. Lionsgate have just sent out a press release informing us that Eckhart will lead I, Frankenstein - their adaptation of the Darkstorm Studios graphic novel that re-imagines the Gothic tale (as you can see on the front cover, he is carrying a gun) with the evolved creation (who can now control his emotions and works as a private investigator) encountering other famous movie monsters. This includes the Hunchback of Notre Dame, the Invisible Man, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde€ though they will be contemporary Raymond Chandler-esque noir updates to them all. It€™s a little like the comic series Fables which reimagined the Big Bad Wolf as a hard boiled detective and Snow White as a marriage counsellor. Here's how the press release puts it;

I, Frankensteinis a modern-day epic: Frankenstein's creature, Adam, has survived to present day due to a genetic quirk in his creation. Making his way to a dark, gothic metropolis, he finds himself caught in an all-out, centuries old war between two immortal clans.

The project is the brainchild of Kevin Grevioux who wrote the graphic novel and the first draft of the script. He is the co-creator of the Underworld franchise and at one point Underworld: Rise of the Lycans director Patrick Tataopoulos was to helm but the latest press release says it will be Tomorrow, When The War Began helmer Stuart Beattie behind the camera, who also took over the writing duties to craft the story into something that more suited his voice. Although new to directing, Beattie is an accomplished writer having scribed Collateral, Derailed, 30 Days of Night, Australia and the initial story for Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. He also wrote a draft for a Halo movie that has so far gone unrealised. I haven't read I, Frankenstein but it sounds like the Hellboy version of Mary Shelley's original novel and that might not be such a bad thing! I would never have picked out Eckhart for it, in fact I was thinking more along the lines of Mickey Rourke, but damnit if that handsome actor hasn't yet grown tired of making himself all ugly for our pleasure! I, Frankenstein has been given a February 22, 2013 release date and begins filming in three months time.