Kevin Grevioux

Lakeshore Entertainment has purchased the script for Kevin Grevioux's comic book, I, Frankenstein and Underworld: Rise of the Lycans director, Patrick Tatopoulos will be helming the project.

Grevioux's comic, issued by Darkstorm, combines classic monsters like Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula and Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde in re-imagined and contemporary settings. The story follows Frankenstein's Monster as the heroic figure who is humanity's only hope against an uprising of supernatural creatures.

"When Kevin Grevioux and Robert Sanchez presented us with I, Frankenstein we knew immediately that this was a great and original franchise that could best utilise Patrick's extraordinary talent and vision," said Lakeshore president Gary Lucchesi.

Grevioux has stated the script will maintain a film noir feel, similar to The Crow and Dark City, combining CGI and great practical effects. He hopes "Frankenstein will be portrayed as the ultimate action hero," which sounds pretty freaking fantastic to me! I love Frank in just about any incarnation. Who is your pick to play the big guy?

There are a lot of conspiracy theories swirling around as to why Warner Brothers intentionally let Michael Dougherty's excellent Trick 'r Treat collect metaphorical dust for two years before giving it an unjust, albeit successful, straight-to-DVD release. No matter what your own theory is, at Fantastic Fest Dougherty cited the film's anthology format as the reason for its shelving. Specifically, no one has made a popular, commercially successful anthology film since Creepshow, and today's audiences might not understand the concept.

Now we all know that's a load of two-week-old Jack-o-Lantern guts; that even the most cynical among us realize that the anthology film is not some kind of ancient cipher that kids today are too busy Twittering and MySpacing to figure out, but that was one of his bigger points of contention with The Suits at WB. Well, that and apparently large corporations with a vested interest in younger demographics don't like it when children are killed in movies, but that's beside the point. And that point is: Dougherty's labor of love has finally made the anthology film relevant again in America.

And as with all things that aren't failures, there are bound to be imitators. Enter Eminem, yes, that Eminem, who is now in talks to lend his considerable popularity to a film called Shady Talez; and yes, it is spelled with a z. Bloody-Disgusting explains the bizarre news:

All I had to hear was "classic monsters," "film noir," and "comic book" before I was interested. Yep, that's all it takes, filmmakers ... but this one sounds like it could be very fun indeed. Looks like Kevin Grevioux, one of the co-creators of the whole crazy Underworld series, is tackling a new project that will make the Vamps vs. Lycans trilogy look like a rainy day at the zoo. Sources indicate that the project "brings back many beloved classic monsters including Frankenstein's Monster, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, the Invisible Man, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde plus many more, in a re-imagined contemporary setting."

The project is called I, Frankenstein, and will be based on Grevioux's upcoming comic book of the same name. On board to direct is Rise of the Lycans helmer Patrick Tatopoulos, and producers include Chris Patton and Robert Sanchez of Death Ray Films, as well as our old pal Ryan "STD" Turek! Obviously we're in the (very) early stages of this multi-medium monster mania, but for a bit more on the concept, the characters, and some nifty character images, check out the reports at FEARnet, Shock, and Dread.

But of course this thing could go either way. It could be the horror equivalent of Hellboy and The Dirty Dozen Meet The Maltese Falcon ... or it could be Van Helsing vs. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. And nobody wants that. Obviously. What say you?