Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride!, a gothic romance after Bride of Frankenstein with Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale, had its world premiere in Leicester Square.
Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride! had its world premiere at Cineworld Leicester Square on Thursday 26 February 2026, with Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale leading the cast on the carpet.
Gyllenhaal was born in New York in 1977 to the filmmakers Stephen Gyllenhaal and Naomi Achs, and began in small parts in her father’s films before Donnie Darko with her brother, Jake. Secretary and Sherrybaby each brought her a Golden Globe nomination, she played Rachel Dawes in The Dark Knight, and Crazy Heart earned her an Academy Award nomination. Her debut as writer and director, The Lost Daughter, adapted from a novella by Elena Ferrante, won the screenplay prize at Venice in 2021 and an Academy Award nomination.
The Bride! draws on the 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein and on Mary Shelley’s novel behind it. Shelley, speaking from the afterlife, takes possession of Ida, a woman in 1936 Chicago, to tell the story she never lived to write. Buckley, a RADA graduate who won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Hamnet, plays a dual role, and Bale, an Academy Award winner for The Fighter, stars opposite her. Annette Bening is also in the cast.
Jake Gyllenhaal, Penélope Cruz and Peter Sarsgaard, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s husband, joined them on the carpet. The film opened in British cinemas and IMAX on 6 March.