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Despite getting his feet dirty with the first two Hobbit movies in the series, Guillermo del Toro still has his mind on Frankenstein. He spoke to our BFFs Shock Til You Drop on the red carpet at the Hellboy II premiere and let fly that he’d love to see Doug Jones play the patchwork monster.

Since they’ve worked together on a ton of projects, it’s not surprising to see del Toro opt for Jones. What is surprising, and really, amazingly cool, is that del Toro would envision a Frankenstein monster so close to the original created by Mary Shelley. Tall, pale with blackened lips, achingly beautiful but completely flawed. If anyone can create a new version to wipe the clunky, bolted-neck monstrosity of the Universal Monsters world, it would be del Toro, and it’s high time someone did.

I have no doubt that his adaptation will be breath-taking.

When told about the comment, Jones showed surprise, which lets us know this thing is still in the very earliest phases of development – that phase where the director is dreaming up his ideal actors without telling the actors themselves. He also had an actor in mind for Victor Frankenstein, but refused to give anything away.

Is it just me, or is del Toro the best twelve-year old working in Hollywood today? I’m constantly amazed at the level of child-like wonder the guy still has for the art form, always acting like a kid who can’t believe he was given the keys to the candy shop. Whatever it is, I wish there were more like him.

Del Toro threw out the name Berni Wrightson, famed comic artist and horror illustrator, when discusses his vision for the monster, and Jones evoked Boris Karloff, making it clear that both are on the right track to creating something new and brilliant with this 190 year-old story.