The Bride!: Julianne Hough joins Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Bride of Frankenstein remake

Several months ago, word leaked out that Maggie Gyllenhaal was set to direct a film called The Bride!, a new take on the concept of the 1935 classic The Bride of Frankenstein  (watch it HERE). Once thought to be set up at the Netflix streaming service, this one is actually happening at Warner Bros., and the studio has set the film for a theatrical release, IMAX screens included, on October 3, 2025. We’ve previously heard the names of several cast members, and now Deadline has revealed another one: Julianne Hough. Perhaps best known for her work on the TV series Dancing with the Stars, where she has been a dancer, a judge, and a co-host, Hough also has multiple acting credits to her name, including roles in Burlesque, Footloose, Rock of Ages, Safe Haven, Paradise, Curve, Dirty Grandpa, and Bigger.

Details on the role Hough will be playing in The Bride! have not been revealed.

The first two cast members Gyllenhaal secured for the project were her The Dark Knight co-star Christian Bale and her husband Peter Sarsgaard. Since then, the cast has grown with the additions of Penelope Cruz, Jessie Buckley, and Annette Bening. Quotes from Bale have indicated that he may be playing Frankenstein’s Monster in the film. Production List had reported the following line-up of cast and characters: “Cruz as the bride Myrna, Bale as Frankenstein, and Sarsgaard playing a detective.” But a later report described Buckley as “the star” of the film, so there’s some confusion over who’s playing the titular Bride.

The Bride! has the following synopsis: A lonely Frankenstein travels to 1930s Chicago to seek the aide of a Dr. Euphronius in creating a companion for himself. The two reinvigorate a murdered young woman and the Bride is born. She is beyond what either of them intended, igniting a combustible romance, the attention of the police and a wild and radical social movement.

This isn’t a Universal project, but it wouldn’t be the first Bride of Frankenstein remake to be made by a different company. In 1985, Columbia Pictures brought us another movie simply called The Bride, which starred Sting as Baron Charles Frankenstein, Jennifer Beals as Eva (the bride) and Clancy Brown as Viktor (the monster). A few years ago, it was announced that Scarlett Johansson was going to star in a similar project called Bride for A24 and Apple, but that still hasn’t made it into production.

Are you interested in The Bride? What do you think of Julianne Hough joining the cast? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

I haven’t seen all of Hough’s movies, but I thought she did well in the ones I have watched, so I’m glad to see her getting another film role.