Gods Finally Smile on Condon’s ‘Monsters’

When “Gods and Monsters” was shown at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, writer-director Bill Condon couldn’t give the film away.

Despite favorable critical reaction and starring roles for Ian McKellen and Brendan Fraser, the distributors weren’t buying.

“There were other films there with, like, nobody in them that were getting picked up,” Condon said.

“[The distributors] always used the code word ‘difficult,’ ” Condon said, a way of side-stepping the issue of homosexuality, which is manifest in the film.

“The indie world is not so independent at all,” he said, because most of the so-called indie distributors are “all owned by big studios now. They’re all looking for the next ‘Good Will Hunting.’ ”

That “Gods and Monsters” was eventually picked up by Lions Gate Films and has subsequently been voted film of the year by the National Board of Review and won three Golden Globe nominations would seem to be the sweetest revenge on a myopic motion picture industry.

“I’m trying not to be too petty,” Condon said, laughing, “but absolutely, no question.”

Condon’s film, based on the novel “Father of Frankenstein” by Christopher Bram, is a speculative account of the last days of James Whale, the British-born gay director who made his name in cinema history with the films “Frankenstein” and “Bride of Frankenstein.”

In particular, the tale focuses on an imagined friendship that develops between Whale, the cultured, erudite director whose health is failing, and Clayton Boone, Whale’s gardener, a handsome, lonely, homophobic, blue-collar ex-Marine.

Taking place almost entirely at Whale’s Hollywood home, the story also includes the role of Whale’s housekeeper, Hanna, and bit parts for a cast of Hollywood legends including Boris Karloff and Elsa Lanchester (the stars of “Bride of Frankenstein”) and director George Cukor (one of Whale’s perpetual rivals).

Condon, who has long been a fan of Whale’s films, was drawn to Bram’s novel immediately and recalls being captivated by one particular scene.

“It’s the scene where all these different people are watching ‘Bride of Frankenstein.’ The scene showed that movies are only really what you can bring to them,” he said.

“Hanna, the housekeeper [played by Lynn Redgrave], watched it the way a child would and got scared. The Lolita Davidovich character [Boone’s sometime girlfriend Betty] sees it the way a ‘50s hipster would. She can’t get past how dated it seems and makes fun of it and feels superior to it. Whale remembers the wit in it. And Brendan’s character [Boone] found poetry. I just loved that in a movie, you could deal with the idea of examining what movies mean to people.”

Shot in 24 days on a low budget, “Gods and Monsters” rarely betrays its humble resources.

“I used that early [Ismail] Merchant-[James] Ivory trick of saving all the money for one or two scenes,” Condon said, adding that he shelled out the big money for two location shots: The first is a swank cocktail party, set at Cukor’s elaborate Hollywood manse. The second is a re-creation of the Hollywood set where Whale shot “Bride of Frankenstein.”

Condon and his crew did meticulous research before the cameras rolled, screening Whale’s pictures, visiting his home at the invitation of the current owners and talking to everyone they could find who knew him.

Among the film’s challenges was the manipulation of time, which, in Whale’s stroke-damaged brain, is becoming liquid in the film. As it begins, Whale is no longer able to control the flow of his thoughts. He is beset by memories, dreams and old nightmares.

“The condition Whale had is a great device for filmmakers,” Condon said. “There are memories that won’t go away; they appear as accusations almost. Sometimes they’re gentle floating things. It was fun to play.”

Stylistically, it also required that Condon shift the film from ‘50s Hollywood to the combat trenches of the Great War, to the studio set for “Bride of Frankenstein,” to a dreamscape in which the monster leads his maker to a kind of deliverance.

For Condon, “Gods and Monsters” represents a “Frankenstein”-size step forward in his career.

His previous film work includes scripts for the cult hits “Strange Behavior” and “Strange Invaders” and his directorial debut, “Sister, Sister,” starring Eric Stoltz, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Judith Ivey.

Condon has begun work on his next project, “Vicki Oberjeune,” a film about an imaginary screen icon. Originally slated for HBO, it has been picked up by Lion’s Gate.