Christian Bale Is Terrifying As Frankenstein’s Monster In First Look At The Bride

Christian Bale’s version of Frakenstein’s monster in The Bride has the signature sutures across the forehead, but the tattoo on his chest appears to say Hope.

In any case, it seems like Maggie Gyllenhaal is taking a bit of a different approach to the monster and his bride in her second feature-length directorial effort.

According to the logline of the film, it will follow a lonely Frankenstein who travels to 1930s Chicago to enlist the help of Dr. Euphronius to create a wife.

To do this, the two resurrect murdered young women, resulting in a fiery romance between the two, police attention, and a radical social movement.

It sounds like Christian Bale and Jessie Buckley’s versions of these classic monsters will be a little bit more of a modern tale than Mary Shelley’s novel, which takes place in the 18th century.

Also, The Bride’s logline does refer to Bale’s character as “Frankenstein,” but it seems like it means Frankenstein’s monster (a common mistake people make when referring to the character, though perhaps the film is some sort of combination of the two?).

Christian Bale and Jessie Buckley will star in The Bride alongside Annette Bening, Penelope Cruz, Julianne Hough, and Peter Sarsgaard.

Along with directing the film, Maggie Gyllenhaal also produces with Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Talia Kleinhendler, and Osnat Handelsman-Keren with Courtney Kivowitz and Carla Raij executive producing.

Gyllenhaal also wrote the screenplay for the film.

The Bride is Gyllenhaal’s second directorial effort following her Oscar-nominated The Lost Daughter, which starred Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, and Jessie Buckley.

Gyllenhaal received the nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for the film, while Colman and Buckely received nods in the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories, respectively.

It will be interesting to see what she does with Christian Bale and Jessie Buckley’s versions of Frankenstein’s monster and the Bride. 

Christian Bale most recently provided voice work for Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning The Boy and the Heron, which hit US theaters last year.

For now, The Bride is his only project that has a set release date. Bale is also on board for the film The Church of Living Dangerously, which tells the true story of a drug-running pastor.

We can expect to see Christian Bale and Jessie Buckley take on these classic monster roles in The Bride when it hits theaters on October 3, 2025.

But, this isn’t the only film based on Mary Shelley’s classic literary characters that is coming out in the near future. There’s also the long-awaited Frankenstein film from Guillermo del Toro that will star Jacob Elordi, Christopher Waltz, Felix Kammerer, Lars Mikkelson, David Bradley, and Christian Convery.