As Universal’s Dark Universe monsters remain in limbo, and as Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein moves forward with Jacob Elordi, another film about the classic horror monstrosity is coming together with actress and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Maggie Gyllenhaal. She’s set to direct The Bride! For Warner Bros., with her Dark Knight co-star Christian Bale as one of the leads. The already stacked cast just gained a new face, though it’s one that’ll be very familiar to fans of Dancing with the Stars and Disney-tethered TV specials: the Emmy-winning entertainer Julianne Hough.
News of this latest casting for The Bride! comes from Deadline, though the details are locked up pretty tight beyond that. For now, no further info is known about who (or what) Hough will be playing. But we might as well make some assumptions while we’re here, with one specific hope related to Mel Brooks’ classic 1974 comedy Young Frankenstein.
Given how entrenched Julianne Hough is within the world of dancing and highly choreographed performances — she currently co-hosts ABC’s Dancing with the Stars alongside Alfonso Ribeiro — on top of being an accomplished singer, I have high hopes for the Footloose remake star bringing those talents The Bride! in one way or another. And while it technically wouldn’t make any sense from a plot, tone or time-setting perspective, it would be amazing if Hough could deliver a nod to Young Frankenstein’s iconic “Puttin’ on the Ritz” sequence, with its brilliant portrayals from Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle.
Not that the musical connections stop there. Mel Brooks helped turn Young Frankenstein into a Broadway (and then touring) musical in 2007. (And ABC had a live TV musical in the works before COVID hit.) So even if The Bride! didn’t go with the most obvious tune for easter egg purposes, plenty of other references exist that could be added without drawing too much attention to the anachronism.
Do I think Maggie Gyllenhaal will actually go forth with such an idea? Not in the slightest, but I do genuinely think Julianne Hough’s dancing and/or singing will be put to use. The story takes place in 1930s Chicago, which allows for a ton of musical styles and nightclub themes to be utilized. Whoever she plays, I bet the costume will be a banger.
Now check out the full cast for The Bride!, which is one of many upcoming horror movies that genre fans should keep in mind:
- Christian Bale
- Jessie Buckley
- Peter Sarsgard
- Annette Bening
- Penelope Cruz
- Julianne Hough
According to the synopsis for the film, which Maggie Gyllenhaal also scripted, the Frankenstein character travels to Chicago to meet up with Dr. Euphronius for the purposes of creating a female romantic companion. Their actions not only create new life, but also incite “radical social change” while drawing the attention of local authorities. By all means, I could be totally wrong, and Julianne Hough might be playing one of the Chicago cops who go chasing after the resurrected couple. But I bet the character’s nickname would be “Great Dancer Cop.”
The Bride! doesn’t have a release date locked down just yet, with a general 2025 window, but head to our 2024 movie schedule to see what else is coming in the following months.