Mel Brooks, 99, set to bring Young Frankenstein back to life in new TV reboot

Brooks has several reboots and sequels in the works as he approaches his 99th birthday

Mel Brooks is set to return to another of his classic comedies, with plans underway to reboot 1974’s Young Frankenstein as an FX television series titled Very Young Frankenstein.

It was confirmed earlier this month that the veteran comedian, who turns 99 this Saturday, is also working on Spaceballs 2, a sequel to his 1987 Star Wars spoof.

Now, Deadline reports that FX is close to green-lighting a pilot for Very Young Frankenstein, which would see Brooks collaborate with the team behind hit vampire sitcom What We Do In The Shadows.

Oscar-winning filmmaker Taika Waititi is expected to direct the pilot, which will be written by showrunner Stefani Robinson and produced by Garrett Basch.

It is not the first time Brooks has collaborated with a younger generation of comedy filmmakers to reboot one of his films for television. In 2023, Ike Barinholtz, Wanda Sykes and Nick Kroll starred in Hulu’s History of the World, Part 2, the long-awaited follow-up to Brooks’ 1981 movie History of the World, Part 1.

Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder on the set of ‘Young Frankenstein’ (1974) (Rex Features)

Young Frankenstein, a loving spoof of Mary Shelley’s novel and of the horror genre more generally, starred Gene Wilder as the titular scientist. It is widely considered one of the funniest films ever made.

When the film turned 50 last year, The Independent’s Geoffrey Macnab wrote: “For Hollywood, Frankenstein is lifeless matter that can endlessly be reanimated. Over the last 100 years, there have been myriad Frankenstein adaptations, many of which have frazzled and mutated author Mary Shelley’s original vision beyond recognition.

“These include romances, cartoons and comedies as well as more conventional horror yarns. Everyone from Andy Warhol to Abbott and Costello has had a go at pulling the lever on their own monster movies.

“Soon, audiences will have a chance to reacquaint themselves with one of the very best Frankenstein features. Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein (1974), back on screen this autumn to mark its 50th anniversary, was conceived as a comic spoof.

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“It lampooned both Shelley’s 1818 novel – Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus – and the Universal adaptations made by James Whale in the 1930s, which starred Boris Karloff as the monster with a bolt in his neck. The miracle, though, is that Young Frankenstein itself still feels so fresh.”

Brooks, who is one of the elite group of entertainers to have achieved EGOT status, has not yet commented publicly on Very Young Frankenstein.

Two weeks ago, he appeared in a video clip promoting Spaceballs 2, joking: “After 40 years we asked what do the fans want... but instead, we’re making this movie.”