text: Basis in reality The film fictionalizes an actual meeting that took place between Mary Godwin, Percy Shelley, and Claire Clairemont at the Villa Diodati in Geneva, hosted by Lord Byron. It has been suggested by some historians and journalists that the events of their meeting which inspired Shelley's Frankenstein and Polidori's "The Vampyre" were triggered by the group's use of opium during their vacation together. Discussing the film's basis in reality, actor Sands commented:
  The film implies that Shelley's Frankenstein was inspired by the loss of her child; film historian Robert Shail wrote that Gothics "baroque visuals can't disguise the dubious nature of Russell's premise that the book was inspired by the author's loss of a baby."
  Production
  Development
  The film was based on a screenplay by Stephen Volk, who worked in advertising. He sent it to Al Clark, head of Virgin Films. Clark said "it was worlds removed from the scripts that one predominantly gets in this country, with their literary ambience and dependence on a sort of linguistic authenticity. I felt it offered a perfect springboard to a director."
  After seeing Crimes of Passion, Clark offered the film to Ken Russell who accepted. Volk admits to having "slight misgivings" when Clark mentioned Russell's name "but when I met Ken I found, somehow to my surprise, that he was very easy to get on with". Russell worked on a further draft of the script with Volk which made relatively minor changes.