Guillermo del Toro to film Frankenstein adaptation in Glasgow

Guillermo del Toro's adaption of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein for Netflix will film in Glasgow and Edinburgh this summer. The Mexican auteur has been working on plans to make a new version of the gothic horror tale since at least 2008. He will write and direct the new film which entered production in February and is expected to be released next year on the streaming service.

The three-time Oscar winning director was in Glasgow city centre in November last year scouting locations for the shoot - he was a fan of the haggis, neeps and tatties at Mharsanta restaurant in the Merchant City.

He also visited Blythswood Square to see the notorious former house of Madeleine Smith, the Glasgow socialite who was the accused in a sensational murder trial in 1857, a tale he knew from David Lean’s 1950 film Madeleine. He had previously visited Edinburgh last summer.

“My favorite novel in the world is Frankenstein,” Del Toro told Collider in 2010. “I’m going to misquote it horribly, but the monster says, ‘I have such love in me, more than you can imagine. But, if I cannot provoke it, I will provoke fear.’”

At the centre of the new version of Frankenstein are Jacob Elordi (Saltburn, Priscilla), Oscar Isaac (Ex Machina, Inside Llewyn Davis), and Mia Goth (X, Emma). 

Joining that main trio are Felix Kammerer (All Quiet on the Western Front), Lars Mikkelsen (The Witcher, Ahsoka), Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained), David Bradley (Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, the Harry Potter films), and Christian Convery (Sweet Tooth). 

Principal photography began in February in Toronto, The Herald reports, and the shoot is expected to wrap this summer. Del Toro previously said: “I’m doing Frankenstein. We’re working on it. We start shooting in February, and it’s a movie I have been wanting to do for 50 years since I saw the first Frankenstein.

“I had an epiphany, and it’s basically a movie that required a lot of growth and a lot of tools that I couldn’t have done 10 years ago. Now I’m brave or crazy enough or something, and we’re gonna tackle it.”