John Carpenter pays a visit to Fangland with Hilary Swank

For too long, legendary genre filmmaker John Carpenter sat on the sidelines collecting royalty checks for lousy remakes of his superior work. Now he’s back in the swing of things, finishing off his haunted asylum tale THE WARD before heading back to the mega-popular vampire scene.

Carpenter is set to direct FANGLAND, based on the book by John Marks (a former “60 Minutes” producer). The story follows an ambitious TV producer who ventures to Romania for some exclusive face-time with a nefarious arms dealer, a shadowy figure who might just be a legendary bloodsucker.

Toothsome Oscar-winner Hilary Swank will star as the journalist. The adaptation comes from writer Mark Wheaton, who penned THE MESSENGERS and an early discarded draft of the FRIDAY THE 13th reboot.

Carpenter, who previously played with the fanged ones in the (loose) adaptation of John Steakley’s novel VAMPIRE$, has also been circling several other projects in the past few years, including a prison movie, a supernatural noir and a gangster story. Meanwhile, his past movies continue to get remade (updates of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK and THEY LIVE are still in the works).