A few years ago, Netflix boss Ted Sarandos was meeting with Guillermo del Toro when he asked the celebrated director which films were on his bucket list.
Del Toro answered with two names: "Pinocchio and Frankenstein."
"Do it," Sarandos replied, effectively agreeing to fund both projects for the streaming giant. The first film, Del Toro's acclaimed dark-fantasy version of Pinocchio, arrived in 2022.
But when it came to starting work on Frankenstein, del Toro had one warning: "It's big."
He wasn't joking. The Mexican filmmaker's ambitious take on the famous mad scientist and his monstrous creation is one of the centrepieces of this year's Venice Film Festival. It's a project he has been working towards for decades.
