Typical. You wait for ages for a movie about Frankenstein author Mary Shelley, and then two come along at the same time. Two biopics of Shelley–the Mother of the Horror Novel–are being planned, one starring Maleficent‘s Elle Fanning, and the other starring Game of Thrones‘ Sophie Turner. A Storm in the Stars will focus on the seventeen-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft’s yearning for Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Mary Shelley’s Monster deals with the author’s struggles to write the novel and how it affected her. She “is drawn into a Faustian bargain with her own ‘monster’ of an alter-ego,” according to the studio press release.
Both movies sound like they will find an audience. A Storm in the Stars promises to appeal to lovers of romance. Mary Shelley’s Monster will be “the story of the most extraordinary 19th century teenage heroine told in a visceral, sexy, contemporary way.” (Read: boobs.) Both movies hopefully will finally make it clear to people that Frankenstein is the scientist, not the monster, a simple distinction that this movie failed to grasp.