Kit Harington and Clara Rugaard are going to star in a “high-concept, rock’n’roll take” on Mary Shelley’s most famous work.
The film, called Mary’s Monster, will tell the story of writer Mary Shelley’s mentality as she is writing her Gothic novel - but through a modern lense including “contemporary music, spoken word, sex, drugs and Baroque ‘n’ Roll”.
The new retelling sounds like it’s going to be full of drama, if nothing else.
“Terrified of giving voice to her own dark, transgressive thoughts yet at the same time driven creatively by them, Mary is seduced by her own inner monster catapulting her into a dangerous, destructive psychological romance the likes of which has never been seen before,” reads the film’s synopsis.
“Realising the monster is inextricably linked to her own mental state, feeding off her own emotions, Mary’s only route to salvation is in bringing him to life.”
The team is going from strength to strength with spooky specialist Farren Blackburn - whose credits include Netflix’s 2018 series The Innocents (about supernatural teenagers) and 2016 psychological thriller Shut In - set to direct the film. Other cast members include CODA’s Ferdia Walsh-Peelo as Percy Bysshe Shelley and Normal People’s Sebastian De Souza who will play Lord Byron.
It has been written by Deborah Baxtrom and Stephen Hallett, and La La Land and CODA’s musical man Marius de Vries will be the executive music producer.
Kit Harington is still best known for his lead role in Game of Thrones, despite acting in films Modern Love, The Death & Life of John F. Donovan and Marvel’s 2021 Eternals since the end of the blockbuster series in 2019. 24-year-old Danish-born Clara Rugaard, on the other hand, is a rising star, featuring in the 2019 film I Am Mother, and the 2021 flick Love Gets a Room.
Currently, the new film has no set release date. Shooting is set to begin in the UK in August of this year, so it may be some time before it comes to our screens. In the meantime, Harrington fans can watch the actor in the Donmar’s Henry V film, which was released nationwide at the end of April. The actor will also star in the upcoming American anthology series Extrapolations - though its release date is also yet to be announced.
Clara Rugaard can be seen in the upcoming film Press Play, which will be released in June, and the April-released British Sky Studios crime drama, The Rising.
Harington said: “Mary’s Monster is a brilliantly original and fascinating script and I’m relishing the idea of depicting the unique part of The Monster. An embodiment of Mary Shelley’s psyche. I’m excited by Farren’s vision and passion for the project.”
Director Blackburn said: “Mary’s Monster is a film about female voice, mental health, gender politics and a disenfranchised youth. For me, no character in history has ever captured the zeitgeist quite like Mary Shelley and Mary’s Monster is the defining period film for the modern YA generation.”
The original Frankenstein was published when Shelley was just twenty-years-old and is now regarded as one of the world’s first science-fiction novels.
