Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
HOLLYWOOD Q&A
Q: I keep hearing people talk about a remake of “The Bride of Frankenstein,” but I’ve yet to see it. Is it actually going to happen?
A: If it doesn’t happen at this point, Hollywood owes Christian Bale a new head of hair.
Bale (“The Dark Knight,” 2008) said in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter that he was about to shave his head for a new role, playing the monster Frankenstein in the remake of the 1935 horror classic “The Bride of Frankenstein.” That little quote is the most concrete confirmation we’ve had yet that it’s actually happening.
What you’ve been hearing as rumors have, in fact, been failed attempts to get this remake off the ground.
The original idea was to make it as part of a cinematic universe, much like Marvel movies but with Universal Pictures’s classic monster lineup. But when a 2017 remake of “The Mummy” (starring Mission: Impossible franchise superstar Tom Cruise) flopped at the box office, all those big plans were shelved, including the “Bride of Frankenstein” remake.
Fortunately, an unlikely hero swooped in to save the day: Maggie Gyllenhaal. Bale’s “Dark Knight” co-star, who recently won accolades for her directorial debut, 2021’s “The Lost Daughter,” is now going to write and direct the remake, which she’s calling simply “The Bride.”
We don’t know much more than that, except that a few other major stars — including Annette Bening (“American Beauty,” 1999) and Penelope Cruz (“Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” 2008) — are attached.
Assuming all goes well from here, we’ll find out the rest in October 2025, which is the currently scheduled release date.
Q: Was that Nestor Carbonell I saw on “Shogun”? I haven’t seen him since “Lost.” What else has he been doing?
A: It’s hard to believe that “Lost” ended 14 years ago — hard because people still talk about it, and because Nestor Carbonell, like his “Lost” character, doesn’t seem to age.
Carbonell played Richard Alpert on “Lost” — a mysterious figure who first ap
pears in flashbacks but is later revealed to be one of the people who were already living on the supposedly deserted island. He’s also revealed to be immortal — a fact which, by the time he was introduced in the third season, wasn’t all that outlandish by the show’s standards.
In real life, Carbonell is, in fact, a real human being who just happens to look 40 forever. That’s helped him establish himself as a serious TV supporting man, often playing serious professionals reacting to the heightened circumstances around them.
While you did, in fact, see him in FX’s “Shogun,” his first post-“Lost” show was a bit of a flop. “Ringer” got just one season on The CW, from 2011 to 2012 (so, just a year after “Lost” ended), with Carbonell playing an uptight FBI agent assigned to protect the show’s protagonist (played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, also seeking a career-defining role post-”Buffy the Vampire Slayer”).
But Carbonell’s biggest role was probably the one that came a couple of years later, playing another lawman, Sheriff Alex Romero on A&E’s “Bates Motel.” This prequel to the 1960 slasher classic “Psycho” reunited Carbonell with “Lost” co-creator Carlton Cuse.
Since then Carbonell has been blending guest arcs with a turn to directing (he helmed an episode of “Law & Order” last year, 32 years after doing a bit part on the show’s second season).
That brings us to now when, as you say, he just appeared in a few episodes of the mega-budget FX miniseries “Shogun.” At the same time, he also has a supporting role in the Apple TV+ series “The Morning Show.”
In the meantime, he also keeps up a busy sideline as an indie-film supporting star. He has two new movies now in postproduction, though neither one — the dystopian drama “Motherland” or the romantic thriller “The Image of You” — has a release date yet.
Q: Is Will Arnett going to make more “Murderville”?
A: Unfortunately it’s impossible to say at the moment, and maybe it always will be.
The improvised sitcom “Murderville” launched its first and only season on Netflix in February 2022, starring Will Arnett (“Arrested Development”) and a rotation of guest stars. It seemed like that one season would be the end of it until November of that year, when a surprise Christmas special was announced, just a few weeks ahead of its release.
We’re now more than a year past that, and Netflix has said nothing about another season or more specials.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s canceled, especially given a) the surprise nature of the first special, b) the fact that Netflix often lets years often go by between seasons, and c) the fact that the show barely has a premise beyond Arnett hanging out with his friends for half an hour.
With all that in mind, a new season could come at just about any time, and maybe with little notice.