While doing the pressers last year for his lighthearted family boxing drama Real Steel, Shawn Levy revealed that one of his next upcoming projects would be a revision of Frankenstein. Not much was heard since the announcement was made, but now we are learning that Levy is actually leaving the project, which could be helmed by Lucky Number Slevin director Paul McGuigan.

McGuigan is in talks with Fox to direct the project. At first Levy wanted to create a big-budget version of the classic horror film, which would involve motion-capture technology, but Fox wanted to have a low budget film. There has been no confirmation if that was the difference that made Levy leave the project, but we do know that McGuigan will still be using the script written by Chronicle director Max Landis.

While a budget dispute may or may not have lead to Levy’s departure, the number of projects he was working on may have contributed to his decision to leave Frankenstein. He is currently working on The Internship, which stars Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson. He is also tapped to direct the sequel for Real Steel. There’s also the Fantastic Voyage remake with James Cameron on hand to help produce. There are a couple of other projects he is attached to, but with so many, one of them was bound to fall through.

It should be noted that I, Frankenstein is set for release next year. Too many films with the same characters and very similar premises proved to be disastrous this year. So it’s best if Fox and McGuigan play their cards right and not rush into production so soon.

We’ll keep you posted on any updates should they come up.

[Source: Variety]