Friday, January 24, 2014

Dracula Films Two Years Later...

You may or may not remember back in 2012 when I wrote a little article on three upcoming "alternative'' Dracula  films (by alternative I mean films that were not literal adaptations but a unique aspect of the Dracula legends). Well anyways its been about two years so lets see were their at:

The Last Voyage of Demeter:
           
         This was the one that I thought sounded the most interesting and also the one that seemed to be most likely to be made. In case you don`t remember what its about is its about what happened on/to the crew of the ill fated ship Demeter which transported Count Dracula from Romania to England.
         So whats the updated on it? Well two years ago David Slade was set to be director, and before him was Marcus Nispel, but since then one of my favorite current directors Neil Marshall took over the project. Then for awhile the film sounded like it was really moving along but since summer of 2012 I have not heard a word about the movie, the latest article about it I could find was from June of 2012 and its IMDB page is now completely empty. It used to at least have Viggo Mortenson, Jude Law as Dracula which was kind of a odd choice, but before him it supposed to be Adrian Brody as Dracula which is an even oddier choice, and then Ben Kingsley was going to be the ships captain. Sadly no one is listed on its IMDB page anymore and in all likely hood are no longer even attached. So I hate to admit it but it sounds like its gonna be in development hell for awhile and its likely hood of being made seems dim.
          BUT have no fear there is a comic book called "Bram Stokers Death Ship" its published by IDW and written by Gary Gerani ("Pumpkinhead" & "Dinosaurs Attack!") and illustrated by Stuart Sayger ("Shiver in the Dark"), this comic is basically about what The Last Voyage of Demeter would be about. I haven't read it but i`ve heard its good and I know the artwork in it is supposed to be especially good.

Next we have the ambitious Dracula project called;
Harker:

       Harker was an interesting idea were it was going to change around the whole Dracula story were the Character  Jonathan Harker from the novel is now a Scotland yard inspector who is obsessed with finding and killing Count Dracula. Well back when I talked about this movie two years ago, Jaume Collet-Serra was supposed to be directing but he left it to direct that upcoming Liam Neeson thriller "Non-Stop". Instead now its supposed to be Eli Roth. I don`t mind Roth directing the film but I fear this will become another Eli Roth horror film project that just gets talked about forever and never actually made like for example; his remake of "The Funhouse", an adaptation of Stephen Kings novel "Cell", and that Thanksgiving themed horror film he always was talking about. But hey maybe hopefully i`ll be wrong this time.
     Russel Crowe is supposedly set to be playing Dracula, I originally thought he was gonna play Jonathan Harker (which I still think would have been a better role for him). It should be noted no one is casted as Harker yet. Lee Shipman and Brian McGreevy have written the script, they hope to make the character a franchise series. This project seems a little more optimistic than The Last Voyage of Demeter, at least this summer things seemed good for the film, but as of right now I have no idea weather or not Harker will actually make it to the screen. Now even if it can`t make as a feature film I think it would make the basis for a really cool comic book or television series, and if those are popular maybe it can spawn a feature film (kinda like what happened with "30 Days of Night")

Finally we have this film:
DRACULA UNTOLD:
You want to hear something ironic? Two years ago this was the film that far and way sounded most unlikely to happen, it had hardly anything being said about it just that Gary Shore was supposed to be directing and its title was Dracula: Year Zero. Well guess what this is the only one out of all three that's actually been made!
        Yes this movie has actually been made, well its still in  Post production  (filming wrapped up in November) and is scheduled to be released October 17th of this year. Its still being directed by Gary Shore whose a relative newcomer in fact this will be his first feature film. Its starring a couple of really good actors like Luke Evans who will be Vlad Tepes and Domnic Cooper as Mehmed the Conqueror. Its production company is Legendary Pictures and being distributed by none other than Universal! I read a interview that was published a couple days ago of Dominic Cooper and he kinda talked about this film and how its going to be a little bit more of historical premise focusing on Vlad and how he more or less becomes Dracula. Anyways it sounds really good, I don`t know if its gonna be R or PG-13 but I know for a fact its coming out this October.
     
        So there we have it, two years later and one of the three movies is actually being made. Which is better than nothing, hey maybe if its really successful it spur the other two into being made. Interesting fact "Dracula Untold" will be the first Dracula movie to get a theatrical release in 14 years, the last one was "Dracula 2000". Well anyways well just have to see what happens with the other two in a year from now.

What are your thoughts? Which do want to see get made or even not get made?