Night at the Museum and Real Steel director Shawn Levy has signed on to direct Fox's Frankenstein movie, one of at least a half-dozen projects based on the Mary Shelley classic trudging through Hollywood, Variety reports.

This adaptation, written by Max Landis (Chronicle), is said to be a "sci-fi take" on the 1818 novel -- sometimes referred to as the first true science fiction novel -- "focusing on themes of friendship and redemption."

The studio obviously wants to start move quickly on the movie to get a jump on its Frankenstein-inspired competitors, which include Jay Russell’s adaptation of the Steve Niles comic Wake the Dead, Summit Entertainment’s This Dark Endeavor, Universal’s untitled project with Guillermo del Toro and Scott Stuber, Lakeshore Entertainment’s I, Frankenstein, a contemporary take from Columbia Pictures, and Ghost House Pictures' adaptation of the Peter Ackroyd novel The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein.