It will be incredibly interesting to see how “The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein” is chopped up, sewn back together and presented on the big screen. The story burns down the barn, but it does it slowly and deliberately. Hopefully that tone and atmosphere will survive. It’s a story about monsters, yes, but it’s also a story about the strange friendship between Victor Frankenstein and poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (the husband of “Frankenstein” author Mary Shelley). Sam Raimi is currently producing the adaptation of Peter Ackroyd’s novel, and the project has found a writer in David Auburn – the playwright/screenwriter who seems to be stepping out of his wheelhouse here if only just a bit. He wrote Proof, The Lake House, and took his turn for Lifetime as writer and director of The Girl in the Park. There’s nothing there to just lose your mind over, so, yes, he’s got a Pulitzer, but the proof is in the pages. Of course, this project also hinges seriously on what director steps up to the plate. At any rate, Auburn will have to tap every talent resource he’s got to deliver the nuance, fear, and philosophical thrill of the novel to a world being told its hungry for Frankenstein. [Deadline Geneva]

We already knew del Toro was going to take on Frankenstein. We didn’t realize he’d be keeping his clothes on for it.