Diablo Cody and Zelda Williams Reveal Inspirations for Lisa Frankenstein

The world of Lisa Frankenstein is obviously influenced by existing pop culture. It’s really baked into the premise of the movie, which is obviously informed by ’80s and ’90s movies and popular culture, ranging from B horror movies from Full Moon to stickers from Lisa Frank. Written by Juno‘s Diablo Cody and directed by Zelda Williams, Lisa Frankenstein follows an unpopular high schooler who accidentally re-animates a Victorian corpse, only to have him bring her with him on a romantic rampage. The movie stars Kathryn Newton, Cole Sprouse, Liza Soberano, Henry Eikenberry, Joe Chrest, and Carla Gugino.

Speaking with ComicBook.com about the movie, both the writer and director were pretty open about the references. Some of them, after all, have been worn on the movie’s sleeves from day one.

“For me, I’m glad that you said John Hughes, because Weird Science was definitely up there,” Cody told ComicBook.com’s Chris Killian after he used Hughes as an example. “I loved that movie when I was a kid, and I also was always intrigued by the idea of, ‘What if it was the girl creating the perfect man?’ Just kind of flipping the narrative on that one a little bit. But yeah, I’m a total Hughes-head, so that was definitely up there for me.”

“It’s a bit of a tie, because I will say I’m such a John Waters stan that there’s a lot of that in here,” Williams added. “But I really did take a lot of the things that I genuinely feel inspired by from Death Becomes Her. That movie, for me, is so informative of comedy when you’re dealing with violence, especially in this ’80s setting, and the color and the vibrancy. Death Becomes Her was incredibly informative for me.”

Here’s the movie’s official synopsis:

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.

The project will be directed by Zelda Williams (Teen Wolf, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) in her feature-length directorial debut, with a script written by Academy Award-winner Diablo Cody (Juno, Jagged Little Pill), who is also producing the project.  

Lisa Frankenstein was produced by Mason Novick and Diablo Cody, who have previously collaborated on Tully, Young Adult, Jennifer’s Body, and Juno.  Jeffrey Lampert is serving as executive producer. Focus is distributing the new film in the U.S. with Universal Pictures International handling international distribution.

Lisa Frankenstein is due in theaters on February 9.