News of the Week: Warner Bros.' Frankenstein Movie Is Building A Stacked Cast

April may be here, which means April Fools Day, but Hollywood isn’t fooling around. Movie news and announcements are heating up, and it’s all exciting stuff. This week sees Spielberg giving high praise to one of his colleagues, a new Scott Derrickson and C. Scott Cargill horror joint announced, Anne Hathaway’s surprising admission, and more.

As always, Atom Insider brings you a few hand-picked stories we think you’ll like. Ready? Let’s dive in.

Warner Bros.’ Frankenstein Pic Is Quietly Building A Stacked Cast

Singer-dancer-actor Julianne Hough has recently been announced as joining the cast of Warner Bros.’ Frankenstein pic, The Bride! If you haven’t heard of this project, that’s understandable, as it’s quietly flying under the radar. However, it’s quietly assembilng a really exciting cast of actors. For starters, it’s being directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal. Adding to that, the cast now includes Christian Bale, Annette Bening, Peter Sarsgaard, Penelope Cruz, and Jessie Buckley.

The Bride!, a modern horror-thriller twist on The Bride of Frakenstein, is set in 1930s Chicago. Frankenstein’s Monster (Bale), lonely on his own, travels to the city to seek the help of mad genius Dr. Euphronius (Sarsgaard) in creating a companion for himself. After they reanimate a young woman who was murdered, both Euphronius and Frankenstein discover she’s not what they anticipated. The emergence of The Bride sparks a tumultuous romance, pressure from police, and a radical new social movement that threatens to engulf everyone.

Steven Spielberg Has High Praise For Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two

One of the reasons that Steven Spielberg is arguably the greatest director in Hollywood history is that he has always been and still is such a student of the art of filmmaking. The man simply loves movies, though he’s not always openly effusive about specific ones. That’s why, on a recent episode of the DGA’s The Director’s Cut podcast, his high praise for Denis Villeneuve and Dune: Part Two jumped out. He thinks the movie is special. Really, really special. Speaking directly to Villeneuve, he told the director that he firmly believes Villeneuve has now joined an elite list of filmmakers Spielberg considers “builders of worlds”:

“Let me start by saying there are filmmakers who are the builders of worlds. It’s not a long list and we know who a lot of them are. Starting with [Georges] Méliès and Disney and Kubrick, George Lucas. Ray Harryhausen I include in that list. Fellini built his own worlds. Tim Burton. Obviously Wes Anderson, Peter Jackson, James Cameron, Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott, Guillermo del Toro. The list goes on but it’s not that long of a list, and I deeply, fervently believe that you are one of its newest members.”

He then went on to praise Dune: Part Two and what Villeneuve has created:

“This is a desert-loving story, but for such a desert-loving film there is such a yearning for water in this movie. For all the sand you have in this film, it’s really about water. The sacred waters that are yearning for green meadows and the blue water of life…You film the desert to resemble an ocean, a sea. The sandworms were like sea serpents. And that scene surfing the sandworms is one of the greatest things I have ever seen. Ever! But you made the desert look like a liquid. You have made one of the most brilliant science fiction films I have ever seen. It is truly a visual epic and it’s also filled with deeply, deeply drawn characters.”

That is high, high praise coming from a legend like Spielberg. Considering Villeneuve’s impressive body of work, we’re inclined to agree with him.

Former 007 Pierce Brosnan Has Seen Those Aaron Taylor-Johnson James Bond Casting Rumors & He Approves

An actor who has played an iconic character passing the torch to another to take up the role is always an interesting thing. Some approve of their successors, whether immediate or a few generations removed, and others aren’t as fond of new takes on the characters they formerly played. We can count former James Bond actor in the former camp, however – he’s heard those Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Bond rumors and he’s all for it.

Speaking on The Ray D’Arcy Show on RTÉ Radio 1, Brosnan gave his stamp of approval. “I think the man has the chops and the talent and the charisma to play Bond, very much so,” Brosnan said.

He would know, after all. He and Taylor-Johnson co-starred in 2009’s The Greatest, which Brosnan also co-produced. “One of the first movies we made, one of our earliest movies, was The Greatest – and he was in it,. He was The Greatest in it. It’s a lovely movie with Aaron and Carey Mulligan and Susan Sarandon and myself. So yes, I read the news about his possibilities of being a Bond, so I would definitely tip my hat to the fellow.”

Brosnan, who was known for being one of the flashiest and most daring iterations of 007, also had some advice for the potential new James Bond actor: “Be bold. Go out there, have a great time. Just love it. Just go for it.”

Heads-Up Horror Fans: Scott Derrickson Is Directing A Night Of The Hunter Remake

And now something for the horror fans: Celebrated horror director and writer duo Scott Derrickson and C. Scott Cargill have lined up their newest project: an adaptation of The Night of the Hunter. The 1953 novel by Davis Grubb was originally adapted as a movie in the classic 1955 film starring Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, and Lillian Gish. The story revolves around Harry Powell, a serial killer passing himself off as a traveling preacher during the Great Depression. In a small town, he cons the wife of a deceased man in order to get his hands on the man’s supposed hidden fortune. Her children, John and Pearl, soon fall victim to Powell’s sociopathic and cruel ways as he views them as the only things standing between him and the fortune.

Considering their track record together, including The Black Phone, Doctor Strange, Sinister, and more, it’s always exciting to see a new Derrickson and Cargill project announced. However, it may be some time before The Night of the Hunter comes to light. Currently, the pair are in post-production on their action romance film The Gorge, starring Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy, and they also already a sequel to The Black Phone lined up. Production on that begins this fall.

Anne Hathaway Credits Christopher Nolan With Saving Her Career

Anne Hathaway had a rough few years after she co-hosted the Oscars with James Franco. It was a disastrous outing that was largely thanks to Franco being openly disinterested, and not Hathaway, who gamely tried to save the situation, even with poorly conceived musical bits and awkward banter between her and Franco. Regardless, as is so often the case, the male actor Franco was largely untouched online while Hathaway was dragged through the mud. Memes were made about her and Anne Hathaway unfairly became a toxic embodiment of the overly-eager theater kid, to the point that it actively hurt her career.

In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Hathaway revealed just how bad it had become – but also that she had an unlikely savior. “A lot of people wouldn’t give me roles because they were so concerned about how toxic my identity had become online,” she revealed, before going on to give credit to the director who ignored it all. “I had an angel in Christopher Nolan, who did not care about that and gave me one of the most beautiful roles I’ve had in one of the best films that I’ve been a part of.”

That film was 2014’s Interstellar, where Hathaway played the role of NASA scientist Dr. Amelia Brand. Nolan clearly knew Hathaway’s prodigious talent and professionalism and knew the online chatter was just online chatter. The two had previously worked together on 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises, where Hathaway played the pivotal role of Selina Kyle/Catwoman.

“I don’t know if he knew that he was backing me at the time, but it had that effect,” Hathaway said. “And my career did not lose momentum the way it could have if he hadn’t backed me.”

She then reflected more seriously on what she went through, showing exactly why the vitriol was unwarranted – she’s a class act:

“Humiliation is such a rough thing to go through. The key is to not let it close you down. You have to stay bold, and it can be hard because you’re like, ‘If I stay safe, if I hug the middle, if I don’t draw too much attention to myself, it won’t hurt.’ But if you want to do that, don’t be an actor. You’re a tightrope walker. You’re a daredevil. You’re asking people to invest their time and their money and their attention and their care into you. So you have to give them something worth all of those things. And if it’s not costing you anything, what are you really offering?”