Frankenstein Gets Modernized For New Dean Koontz-Based Franchise

When it comes to 19th century literary monsters, Bram Stoker's Dracula seems the bigger inspiration on modern Gothic tales thanks to the current vampire craze, but the creature from Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" is definitely the more relevant to the 21st century, as long as man continues pursuits towards human perfection.

Cashing in on this potential are "X-Men" franchise producer Ralph Winter and Terry Botwick ("Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie"), who are adapting Dean Koontz's ongoing series of "Frankenstein" novels, according to Variety. In the series, which continues this May with the release of a fourth book, Koontz updates and re-imagines Shelley's classic novel for present-day, New Orleans-set stories focused on two detectives working cases involving synthetic biological super-humans.

The intent is to turn the books into a film franchise beginning with an adaptation of the first book, "Prodigal Son." And in a way, this should also be considered a reboot, since a made-for-TV adaptation of the series, produced by Martin Scorsese and starring Parker Posey and Michael Madsen, aired on the USA Network back in 2004.

But will it do for biologically engineered creatures what "Twilight" and "True Blood" have done for vampires? Unfortunately, I don't think there are any romances between humans and monsters, a la "Firelight," the "SNL" spoof combining "Twilight" and "Frankenstein." Still, the mix of science fiction, horror and detective story featured in Koontz's novels has the potential for an action-packed blockbuster.

In recent years we've heard about a number of projects related to Shelley's original novel. Guillermo del Toro has been interested in doing a new version of her story for awhile, while Universal also announced plans last year to remake "Bride of Frankenstein." And let's not forget the redo of "Short Circuit" in development, since Johnny 5 always related to Frankenstein's monster.

Have you read Dean Koontz's books? Do you see this modern day "Frankenstein" being successful enough for a blockbuster franchise?

Tags Dean Koontz, frankenstein, Prodigal Son