It’s classic movie monster time! I was going to wait until Christmas to talk about this, but now seemed like a more appropriate time. We are going to compare the original black and white movie monsters (and the actors who brought them to life), against more modern versions and actors to see who comes out on top.

I know there are dozens of classic monsters, including the Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Fly, giant robots, aliens, and over-sized insects/animals, but I’m going to focus on the more famous literary monsters : Frankenstein’s monster, The Wolf Man, Dracula and The Mummy.

Judging from their work together on Hellboy, Hellboy 2, and Pan’s Labyrinth, when director Guillermo del Toro gets together with actor Doug Jones, good things usually happen. So, naturally, in casting his many upcoming projects, Del Toro has turned to the highly talented Jones again. In an interview with SCI FI Wire, Jones spoke about his involvement in Del Toro’s upcoming films, Frankenstein, The Hobbit, and possibly Hellboy 3.

In unsurprising but awesome news, busy man Guillermo del Toro confirmed today some of what most fans have been expecting for a long time in regards to some role reprisals in The Hobbit by a few of our favorite actors and characters from the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

According to del Toro in a BBC Radio interview with regards to The Hobbit, Hugo Weaving will again be playing Lord Elrond, Sir Ian McKellen will be back as our favorite bearded wizard, Gandalf the Grey, and last but not least, the talented Andy Serkis will be back as Gollum.

While at the red carpet premiere of Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Guillermo Del Toro told Shock Till You Drop that his project after The Hobbit films will be an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. What stood out for me was when he said Bernie Wrightson’s Frankenstein was “the only vision… of the monster I’ve ever latched onto…”

That’s awesome!

The thought of Del Toro, an amazing filmmaker using Bernie Wrightson’s faithful adaptation to create the look of the monster has me really excited. But why stop there? How about basing a lot of the production design of the movie on Wrightson’s material? Maybe hiring Bernie would be a fantastic idea! (Hint hint).