Kenneth Branagh and The Art of the Adaptation: or, My God, You Were So Close!

Moving on to 1994's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

In 1992, audiences were treated to Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula, a strange and sexy Hollywoodized version of the 1897 gothic horror novel. Intended to be a faithful adaptation (hence the author's credit in the title) of the original story, Coppola and company told folks to forget everything they thought they knew about Dracula, from Bela Lugosi to Christopher Lee to Count Chocula. As a result, it's a combination of two very different cultural mindsets - the Victorian setting of the novel and the sincere melodrama that the 1990s thrived on. It was a hit - sexy, silly, stylish. Praise was showered on Coppola's cleverness, the passionate performances (well, for Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, and Anthony Hopkins - we don't have the inches to get into the Keanu backlash) and period production elements - four of which were nominated for Academy Awards.

After that critical success and box-office winner, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was a natural fit for a spiritual sequel.