by Jen Yamato
August 12, 2014 3:04pm
EXCLUSIVE: In a new take on the life and lore of Frankenstein authoress Mary Shelley, Game of Thrones‘ Sophie Turner has been cast as Shelley herself opposite Jeremy Irvine (War Horse, Stonewall) as Percy Shelley. Scripted by Deborah Baxtrom, Mary Shelley’s Monster tracks the young writer as she writes her seminal novel and is drawn into a Faustian bargain with her own “monster” of an alter ego, who offers literary fame at a desperate personal cost. Taissa Farmiga (American Horror Story, The Bling Ring) is attached in a supporting role as Mary’s stepsister Claire Clairmont.
The real Shelley first published her Gothic horror classic Frankenstein anonymously at the age of 21 after marrying the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Monster envisions her life as “the story of the most extraordinary 19th century teenage heroine told in a visceral, sexy, contemporary way,” per producer Rose Ganguzza, who produced last year’s Beat Generation drama Kill Your Darlings. “Our film is not a period drama. It is a story of youth that transcends time, a gothic romance, a love triangle that involves a dark passenger and we are tremendously excited to have such an exciting cast onboard this wonderful project.”
Director Coky Giedroyc is helming after directing episodes of AMC’s The Killing and Showtime’s Penny Dreadful. Producers are Ganguzza, J Todd Harris (The Kids Are All Right), Damon Lane and Marc Marcum. Filming is slated to begin later this year in the UK and Malta. Turner is repped by CAA and Independent in the UK. Irvine is repped by CAA and Hatton McEwan Penford. Farmiga is repped by ICM Partners and Authentic Talent and Literary Management. Giedroyc is repped by UTA and Independent and Deborah Baxtrom is repped by ICM Partners and Zero Gravity Management.