Stone Village, BlackBox revive Frankenstein

Stone Village’s award-winning Empire Falls

Mary Shelley’s literary classic Frankenstein is being developed as a premium television series by Scott Steindorff and Dylan Russell’s Stone Village Television and London-based BlackBox Multimedia.

The adventure series, written by Scottish screenwriter Bradley McManus (Bodyguard of Lies), will offer a fresh take on the book including experiential elements to update the story for a modern, international audience.

LA-based Stone Village and BlackBox, the production firm set up by former Lionsgate UK chief operating officer Guy Avshalom, will produce the limited series with characters and storylines that could continue in successive seasons.

Steindorff, managing partner at Stone Village, said: “While working on a documentary film with neuroscientists studying human consciousness, I realised that the human curiosity behind the scientific breakthroughs of today is the same as that Shelley was writing about in 1818. This 200-year-old story remains as relevant as ever.”

Steindorff and Russell are currently producing Station Eleven for HBO Max and Paramount Television. Stone Village’s past television projects include Golden Globe- and Emmy-winning HBO limited series Empire Falls.

BlackBox Multimedia is currently developing a wide slate of international drama, including best-selling author and Downton Abbey actress Catherine Steadman’s screenwriting debut, an adaptation of Jess Ryder’s psychological thriller novel The Ex Wife.