Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro personally visited the Wallace Monument before it influenced the design of Victor Frankenstein's laboratory in his upcoming Netflix film. The monument to William Wallace, which opened in 1869, provided inspiration for the abandoned water tower that becomes the cliffside lab in the movie, released on Friday.
Del Toro's adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel features several Scottish locations, including the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, Glasgow Cathedral and sites in Aberdeenshire. Much of the filming took place in late 2024.
Production designer Tamara Deverell said: 'The Wallace Monument was a very strong design influence for the look of our abandoned water tower, which transforms into Victor Frankenstein's cliffside laboratory.' She added that del Toro, concept artist Guy Davis and she visited the monument in April 2023 during their first location scout in Scotland.
'We used the overall silhouette, the textures of the stone, the arched architecture, and, particularly, the turreted top in the design of our Frankenstein tower,' Deverell explained. 'Like so much of Scotland, our first view of the Wallace Monument rising on a high point in the mist over the countryside was both breathtaking and extraordinarily inspirational.'
