It’s alive and it’s at the Venice Film Festival, but it’s not a warning about artificial intelligence.
Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” starring Jacob Elordi and Oscar Isaac, tells the story of a brilliant yet arrogant scientist who creates a monstrous being, only for the experiment to destroy them both. While the film explores themes of pride and a creation that grows beyond control, the Oscar-winning director says his new movie is not meant as a message about the rise of AI.
It’s not intended as a metaphor for that. We live in a time of terror and intimidation, certainly. And there’s no more urgent task than to remain, in a time where everything is pushing towards a bipolar, understanding of our humanity. The movie tries to show imperfect characters and the right we have to remain imperfect, and the right we have to understand each other under the most oppressive circumstances. I’m not afraid of artificial intelligence. I’m afraid of natural stupidity.
del Toro said at the film’s official press conference on Saturday afternoon, Plus, he cracked
Mary Shelley’s story has been adapted for film many times, most famously in the 1931 classic “Frankenstein,” directed by James Whale and featuring Boris Karloff. In del Toro’s version, Elordi takes on the role of the creature locked in a deadly conflict with his creator, played by Isaac.
Rather than a typical horror movie, the director presents the tale as a complex family drama. For del Toro, bringing his own vision of “Frankenstein” to life fulfills a lifelong dream.
I’ve been following the creature since I was kid. I waited for the movie to be done in the right conditions, both creatively in terms of achieving the scope to make it different, and to make it at a scale that you could reconstruct the whole world. Men in suits. Very well tailored [ones]. Del Toro interjected.
he said. And now that he’s completed the film, he joked, “I’m in postpartum depression. Given the themes of the film, Elordi was asked who in society represents a monster to him — and the actor was quick to reply.
Isaac, meanwhile, remembered his early talks with del Toro that led to him being cast as Victor Frankenstein, the monster’s creator.
I can’t believe that I’m here right now. I can’t believe we got to this place from two years ago, sitting at [del Toro’s] table eating Cuban pork and talking about our fathers and our lives, to him saying, ‘I want you to be Victor,’ then not really being sure if it was true or if I was just dreaming. It just seemed like such a pinnacle.
Isaac said
The $120 million monster movie, premiering on Saturday night, will compete for the prestigious Golden Lion, an award del Toro previously won in 2017 for “The Shape of Water.” Co-stars Christoph Waltz and Mia Goth, along with composer Alexandre Desplat, were also present at the press conference.
As Netflix is distributing “Frankenstein,” the film will have a limited three-week theatrical run before streaming on the platform. Del Toro, however, is not worried about the shorter time in theaters and said he is happy with the release plan for the film.
Look at my set, I always want more of everything. you never know what’s going to happen. He brought up his 2021 psychological thriller “Nightmare Alley,” which misfired at the box office. We were released next to ‘Spider Man [No Way Home] and Omicron, the variation of COVID. We lasted very little. So you never know what is affordable. What I do know is to reach over 300 million viewers [on Netflix], you take the opportunity and challenge to make a movie that evokes that cinema, and then you provide theaters in the beginning. That makes, for me, a very creative experience.
he said, But when it comes to the rocky state of movie theaters, the director noted, del Toro said.
Source: Variety