The woman behind Frankenstein knew some monstrous troubles of her own. A trailer for the upcoming movie Mary Shelley, starring Elle Fanning as author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, came out Friday, and it's full of the gothic-romantic elements Shelley fans will expect.
Shelley's story is well-known among literature lovers. Just a teen when she fell for married poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (played by Douglas Booth), Shelley wrote the famed horror novel as a dare.
The Shelleys were spending the wet summer of 1816 with poet Lord Byron (Tom Sturridge) in Switzerland when Byron proposed each guest try to write a ghost story. Mary Shelley's grim tale of a corpse brought back to life became the novel Frankenstein. (Frankenstein, of course, is the scientist's name, but it's forever associated with the movie monster.)
In the trailer, there are creepy hints at Shelley's reanimated monster, but much of the action surrounds Mary Shelley's romantic life and troubles, as well as the struggles of simply being an independent-minded woman in an era that's not ready for that.
The movie also stars Bel Powley, Ben Hardy, Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams, Stephen Dillane and Joanne Froggatt of Downton Abbey fame.
Mary Shelley is set to premiere in the US on May 25 and in the UK on July 6. No Australia release date has been given.
Be respectful, keep it clean and stay on topic. We delete comments that violate our policy, which we encourage you to read. Discussion threads can be closed at any time at our discretion.