Dracula Year Zero
A movie prequel to Bram Stoker's novel was announced a year ago from Universal Studios, the company that brought us the most memorable film adaptation starring Bela Lugosi. This month they have announced that Alex Proyas has become attached to the prequel; Dracula Year Zero.
Alex Proyas directed the 1994 gloomy cult hit, The Crow, starring Brandon Lee in his final & ultimately fatal role. Four years later, he wrote and directed the cyberpunk meets film noir, Dark City. Featuring pretty boy Keifer Sutherland in a particularily creep & unpretty role, alongside the equally creepy Richard O'Brien of Rocky Horror fame.
Both excellent dark moody films. Dark City is especially imaginative but lacked a successful (or any?) marketing campaign. And with the Matrix in theaters soon after, Keanu Reeves would become the face of cyberpunk, much to our chagrin. Or at least anyone with taste. :P
Oh right, Dracula Year Zero! So with Alex Proyas at the helm, whom also directed Will Smith's I, Robot which opened to $52 million, it's possible we might see a decent production with a decent budget and decent distrobution. Universal will no doubt want to do their most popular monster proud.
Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless have writen the screenplay, neither of whom I'm familiar with. Possible newcomers? But Dracula Year Zero does not deal with the Count as we think we know him. It's intended to serve almost as a historical biopic of the real Dracula, Vlad Tepes. Don't expect a particulary gory or ruthless film, Proyas has stated he became interested in the project because of its sympathetic approach to portraying the Romanian ruler.
My curiosity has certainly been piqued, but I'd like to point out that this has been done before. In 2000, Rudolf Martin portrayed Vlad in a made for TV movie released on the USA Network which was successful in little else but keeping vampires out of the equation.
That's currently my only concern. An improved film portraying Vlad is wonderful, but will they manage to keep the man and the fictional vampire seperate. Given that this is being dubbed the prequel to the novel influenced by the man, they're off to a bad start, historically speaking. There is no intentional connection between Stoker's fictional novel and the 15th century prince.
Expect Dracula Year Zero for 2008. Universal will surely want to beat the film adaptation of The Historian to theaters and possibly to contend with Juraj Jakubisko's biopic, Bathory. Bathory tells the story of Hungarian Countess Erzs
Alex Proyas directed the 1994 gloomy cult hit, The Crow, starring Brandon Lee in his final & ultimately fatal role. Four years later, he wrote and directed the cyberpunk meets film noir, Dark City. Featuring pretty boy Keifer Sutherland in a particularily creep & unpretty role, alongside the equally creepy Richard O'Brien of Rocky Horror fame.
Both excellent dark moody films. Dark City is especially imaginative but lacked a successful (or any?) marketing campaign. And with the Matrix in theaters soon after, Keanu Reeves would become the face of cyberpunk, much to our chagrin. Or at least anyone with taste. :P
Oh right, Dracula Year Zero! So with Alex Proyas at the helm, whom also directed Will Smith's I, Robot which opened to $52 million, it's possible we might see a decent production with a decent budget and decent distrobution. Universal will no doubt want to do their most popular monster proud.
Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless have writen the screenplay, neither of whom I'm familiar with. Possible newcomers? But Dracula Year Zero does not deal with the Count as we think we know him. It's intended to serve almost as a historical biopic of the real Dracula, Vlad Tepes. Don't expect a particulary gory or ruthless film, Proyas has stated he became interested in the project because of its sympathetic approach to portraying the Romanian ruler.
My curiosity has certainly been piqued, but I'd like to point out that this has been done before. In 2000, Rudolf Martin portrayed Vlad in a made for TV movie released on the USA Network which was successful in little else but keeping vampires out of the equation.
That's currently my only concern. An improved film portraying Vlad is wonderful, but will they manage to keep the man and the fictional vampire seperate. Given that this is being dubbed the prequel to the novel influenced by the man, they're off to a bad start, historically speaking. There is no intentional connection between Stoker's fictional novel and the 15th century prince.
Expect Dracula Year Zero for 2008. Universal will surely want to beat the film adaptation of The Historian to theaters and possibly to contend with Juraj Jakubisko's biopic, Bathory. Bathory tells the story of Hungarian Countess Erzs