Dracula: Year One – Sam Worthington could be Vlad?

Not content to star in one of the highest grossing films of all time – Avatar, not Terminator Salvation and starring in the epic remake of Clash of the Titans and could possibly be Captain America, Sam Worthington could also possible be a young Count Dracula. Latino Review had the rumour and if it is true Worthington could be in a huge supernatural epic type film.

Collider recently spoker with Producer Mike De Luca about the film:

“These writers came up with the ingenious-what I think is ingenious-approach combining historical Dracula with Bram Stoker’s Dracula. So it chronicles the efforts of a young prince, Vlad of Transylvania trying to keep the Ottoman empire and the Turk’s of the time from using his small country as a stepping stone to invade Europe. So there’s a historical basis for all of that history that’s in the script, but when his back is up against the wall and he can’t figure out how to keep the Turkish army out of his country and keep their hands off his country’s children, which they want to kidnap and press into their army as something they used to call the Jannisserie core, I guess the Roman’s did a version of it also, but this taking of male children from host countries and pressing them into military service for the invading army is another thing he’s trying to prevent. Because his own son is being threatened with that kidnapping. And in the script that we have, he was actually a victim of it himself. He earned the reputation of being the impaler while he was serving the Turks.

One Turk in particular, which is the antagonist in the movie, so in a moment of desperation he looks at this mountain top in Transylvania that all the gypsies in his country say is haunted and full of bad black magic. And he’s never believed in any of that supernatural kind of what he thinks is hogwash. But in a moment of desperation he ascends that mountain to see if there’s any truth to any kind of power that he could use to keep the invading army out. And he finds something that gets him to where we have come to know him as Dracula and uses that power source to kind of fight the Turks after he’s changed.

Finding the right…the comfort level in terms of cast, budget, you know how we’re going to the effects. As written it’s literally on the scale of Braveheart with Dracula, so it’s a lot of…it’s armies. It’s an invading Turkish army. It’s a lot of supernatural action. It’s wonderful. Like it’s an epic love story. It’s got everything you want in a movie like this but it’s tricky and it’s big so we’re trying to figure out how to do it in the most efficient way.”

Sounds like it could be a great film doesn’t it. Alex Proyas (Knowing, Dark City, The Crow) is currently attached to direct, but I am not sure if he is the right choice for a film like this. I’m still looking forward to his adaption of The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag.

As for Sam Worthington as Dracula….I just don’t see it. He was great in Avatar and was probably the best thing in Terminator Salvation, but it just seems a bit wrong. Of course nothing is confirmed about the role so we’ll have to wait and see as usual.

What do you think about Dracula: Year Zero? Is Worthington the right choice for the part? If not him then who should become Vlad?

The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag – Alex Proyas is still talking about it

This isn’t really that new a piece of news as I first mentioned it back in August last year in one of The Random posts.

For whatever reason it has cropped up again even though the situation is pretty much the same (Proyas is talking about it but it won’t be made just yet) but it does go into some of the inspiraction behind Proyas’ decision to make the brilliant Dark City. Hoag does seem to be a slightly different kettle of fish though.

Alex Proyas spoke to SCI FI Wire about writing his own film adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein’s 1942 SF novella, The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag.

“It’s one of these stories that’s come from my childhood, in that I read it when I was quite young,” Proyas (I, Robot) said in a recent interview while promoting the March 20 release of Knowing. “That was a fairly formative story for me. It really did inspire Dark City in some ways. It’s one of those pieces that you read when you’re young, and I’d not really read it for maybe 20 years. Going back to it, I was actually quite surprised at how much stuff had filtered into my other work from the story.”

The story centers on Jonathan Hoag, a man who one night realizes that he doesn’t know what he actually does during the day and is confounded by the reddish residue he sees under his fingernails each night. Hoag hires a husband-and-wife private investigator team, Ted and Cynthia Randall, to follow him, and what the Randalls discover is horrifying—and involves mirrors, dark dreams, a missing 13th floor and some folks who call themselves Sons of the Bird.

“There’s just something incredibly creepy about it,” Proyas said. “Look, I think the whole concept in the story is this parallel universe that exists on the other side of a mirror. I think that’s really quite fascinating. I know there have been quite a few stories done about that and a lot of films done with that concept, but it’s something that I’m really excited to explore, just this universe that exists in the looking glass.”

Jonathan Hoag is one of three projects that could turn out to be Proyas’ follow-up to Knowing (Nicholas Cage). The other two are Dracula: Year Zero, based on an original screenplay, and The Tripods, a possible trilogy adapted from John Christopher’s SF youth novels. Proyas doubts that Jonathan Hoag will get done first.

“I’m at the early stages of doing the screenplay, so who knows what direction it’s going to take?” he said. “But it is something I’m excited about. I am actually doing the screenplay myself at this stage. Usually I start the ball rolling and often bring in collaborators. So I’d be surprised if it was just me right through to the end. But you never know. It really depends on how the draft goes.”

Now I’ve not read the book in question, but it does sound like my cup of tea. Have any of you read it? Apart from the main characters opening amnesia, how similar it is to Dark City? Any more Dark City fans out there?

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The Random

Alex Proyas (Dark City) is to adapt Heinlein’s “The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag”, which sounds a bit Dark Cityish to me. All about a bloke who cannot remember what he gets up to during the day.

Firefly is coming to Blu-Ray.

Firstshowing.net‘s Alex Billington has posted the European (i.e., German subtitled) trailer for Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon.

Those Robert Harris-supervised restorations of The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II will be shown theatrically starting on 9.12 at New York’s Film Forum, with concurrent bookings in Los Angeles and San Francisco. It’s all a plug for the 9.23 DVD/Blu-ray release of these two.

Filming has commenced in L.A. on His Name Was Jason, a new documentary about the Friday the 13th franchise. It will air on Starz the first week of February 2009 (just in time for Platinum Dunes’ new film). A DVD release through Anchor Bay Entertainment will follow.

Discuss in the forum.