Maggie Gyllenhaal's THE BRIDE Described as a "Punk," "Violent," and "Wildly Romantic" Musical
Director Maggie Gyllenhaal is working on her second feature film, The Bride, at Warner Bros. After making her directorial debut, The Lost Daughter, which was nominated for three academy awards, this movie has a lot of buzz. The star-studded cast includes Christian Bale as Frankenstein’s Monster; Jessie Buckley as the titular bride; and a supporting cast of Jake Gyllenhaal, Penelope Cruz, Peter Sarsgaard, and Annette Bening.
The film “sees a lonely Frankenstein travel 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.”
When asked in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter about working with his wife on the picture, Peter Sarsgaard reiterated his previous sentiments, where he said this script is the best he’s read.
“It is true. It’s the best thing I’ve ever read. To me, it’s both a big movie for adults and a big movie that’s for teenagers. It’s what everyone hopes for and tries to solve in making a big movie.
The people that are involved in every department — Christian Bale, Jessie Buckley, Annette Bening, Jonny Greenwood doing the music and Dylan Tichenor doing editing, the list goes on and on — are not just people who are great but they are real individuals with style and taste.”
This is Gyllenhaal’s second directing gig, and her spouse also worked with her on the last film. When asked if he got to pick his role, and what the experience was like overall, he delved deep with details, saying:
“She always says that she writes every male part with me in mind, but then she offers me the part that she thinks that I’m best suited for. The Bride is punk, and it’s fast and really emotional. Also, it’s violent at times and it’s wildly romantic.
I don’t think you could say anything of those things about The Lost Daughter except for maybe that it’s briefly violent but it’s a different kind of violence. The Bride is so ambitious because the script really is one of the best scripts.
Look, my wife wrote it so I’ll just go ahead and say that it’s the best script I’ve ever read. It really was satisfying on so many levels.”
He went on to gush about his co-stars, saying:
“With Christian Bale, he’s such a phenomenal actor who has such devotion. Watching him on set… you know some actors try to stay in it. You have to call them by their character’s name and all that crap.
They speak in the accent the entire time. It’s not like that with him. It is just that he can’t help but be in it. It’s not a choice. It’s not a pretension. It’s just the way that he is. That changes the set when you have that type of leadership with him and with Maggie.
Then Jessie is the most abstract, random, free-flowing, in-the-moment actor you could ever work with. She can also sing and dance by the way — big time. There are big dance numbers and stuff in the movie.
I’m so happy with the way that Warner Bros. has supported Maggie on the movie, too. It’s nice to work with Pam Abdy over there who I worked with on Garden State back in the day. It’s a great studio that has artistically-minded people running it.”
From what I’ve seen and heard so far, this looks like it’s going to be a really interesting movie. The Bride is currently set to hit theaters on October 3, 2025.