Javier Bardem will be Frankenstein's monster

The new Universal monster movie franchise is already attracting heaps of talent and the latest to sign on is Javier Bardem.

You may not know this but those classic Universal monster movies of yore - Dracula, The Mummy, The Wolf Man - are being rebooted, with a blockbuster version of The Mummy currently in production featuring Tom Cruise as some kind of adventurer who comes up against Sofia Boutella as the reanimated one question.

Universal wants to build an interconnected franchise here, and their first effort was Dracula Untold, which fizzled at the box office despite being rather good fun. We likely won't be seeing Luke Evans' Vlad again but there's a possibility the wonderful Charles Dance could reappear after this mysterious role in that film.