Don't try and pretend you weren't a little disappointed when you learned that Guillermo del Toro's deal with Universal included so many adaptations. After all, the guy has such a huge imagination you'd rather see him do something original and different with it, rather than just stick to someone else's ideas.

How about we split the difference? While appearing at The Director's Guild in Manhattan this weekend, Guillermo spilled some beans about his take on Frankenstein. Here, thanks to the reporting skills of Coming Soon's Max Evry, is what he had to say:

"I'm not doing 'Mary Shelly's Frankenstein.' I'm doing an adventure story that involves the creature. I cannot say much, but it's not the central creation story, I'm not worried about that. The fact is I've been dreaming of doing a 'Frankenstein' movie since I was a child. The one thing I can promise is, compared to Kenneth Branagh, I will not appear shirtless in the movie!"

Now that's exciting. It means that we could be seeing a really fresh take on Frankenstein, one that isn't beholden to what comes before. The first thing that leaps to mind is Grant Morrison's version of the character as a science fiction superhero; I don't doubt that whatever Guillermo has in mind will eclipse that.

I was interested in seeing Guillermo's take on the traditional Frank story - Frankenstein (or rather his Monster) is sort of the archetypal Guillermo del Toro monster, in that he's the original monster for whom you feel bad. It's not his fault that he's the way that he is, and nobody seems to understand that - this runs through del Toro's filmography. Taking that creature and then dropping him into a world that springs from the mind of Guillermo del Toro... I'm getting jazzed just thinking about it.

For more on what Guillermo had to say that night, go to Coming Soon.