Desde Hollywood had the chance of dissecting the new horror rom-com LISA FRANKENSTEIN with its director, Zelda Williams, and writer, Diablo Cody.

The talented duo talked about the perennial power of the Mary Shelley classic, the assembling of the cast, capturing the 80’s and much more.

The cast includes Kathryn Newton, Cole Sprouse, Liza Soberano, Henry Eikenberry, Joe Chrest, and Carla Gugino.

Focus Features will release LISA FRANKENSTEIN this Friday, February 9, in theaters nationwide.

Watch the video interview and/or read the juicy conversation below!

This story, Frankenstein, is over 200 years old. Why do you think it’s so consistently prevalent in our popular culture and how important was it for you to help bring to life the first version that is written by a woman, directed by a woman, and that has a female protagonist?

Diablo Cody: Well, it’s interesting because as you know, the whole Frankenstein legend began with a woman, Mary Shelley, who wrote the novel. And I think the reason the myth continues to be so prevalent, you know, 200 years later, is because we’re obsessed with the idea of playing God and creating life and being able to reanimate people. It’s like just this compulsion I think, that we have as humans. It’s a dream. And so, yeah, I mean, I was drawn to the myth as well, like many people before me.
And in terms of the importance of this perspective, I mean, that was everything to me because I had seen a lot of these stories about sort of, you know, creating the perfect woman. But I had not really seen the story from the perspective of a woman. For us, to do it as a female team, that’s pretty cool.

Zelda, I think that directors are in a way, like mad scientists: You have to put different pieces together and make it work. How was the process of assembling the perfect cast? What do you think that the protagonist, these actors, brought to this cinematic creature?

Zelda Williams: I mean, thankfully… initially in reading, I was worried about casting “Creature.”
I think we both were, because there’s not a lot of people that get very excited about going like, “Hey, do you want to be in 7 hours of prosthetic makeup and also then not have any lines?” And thankfully, knowing Cole as long as I have, I knew he always wanted to be a monster, so I brought it to him.
Playing a monster is such a wonderful mantle, but it’s not for everyone. And he was thankfully ecstatic. So that worked out extremely well. And then, in finding the chemistry for Liza, I wanted to find someone fearless. And Kathryn’s completely fearless!

Obviously, the 80’s are very important in the film. How was it for both of you to capture that era at different stages?

Cody: Well, for me, I have a very personal connection to the eighties because I grew up in the eighties, so there was just a lot of nostalgia there for me. And so, I just have an emotional connection to that zeitgeist. And in terms of capturing it in the script, I mean, obviously there was the slang.
I had to make sure it was period appropriate. That part is always fun, but also just sort of capturing the vibe of the times. You know, it was definitely not as accepting of a time. And I think a lot of people felt isolated and alienated then. And I just I kind of wanted to capture that in the script

Williams: The first thing I did start going into was very much the production design. Production and costume pretty simultaneously. But I wanted to create the world that they were in and, even the level before that, when we were pre-development, I really did deep dive into the eighties movies I love because the tone and pacing is just different when you’re not using some of the flashy editing tools that we have now and things If you try and just play with what they had at the time, you end up with a very different toolbox.
I really enjoyed trying to give myself a bit of that challenge. I really love the pacing of eighties comedies, so I approached a lot of that for sure.

LISA FRANKENSTEIN is alive, in theaters, this Friday.

A coming of RAGE love story from acclaimed writer Diablo Cody (Jennifer’s Body) about a misunderstood teenager and her high school crush, who happens to be a handsome corpse. After a set of playfully horrific circumstances bring him back to life, the two embark on a murderous journey to find love, happiness… and a few missing body parts along the way.