Proyas restarts Dracula

As a boy who grew up in a Romanian household, eating Romanian food, listening to his parents argue in Romanian, and being forced to sing the Romanian anthem each night before bed, I’ve always taken special pride in the fact that the origins of the Dracula legend are rooted in my homelanmd (Transylvania is an historical region in Romania). And for those who are unaware, Dracula is based on Vlad Dracula aka Vlad the Impaler, a prince during the 15th century. I’m giving you guys this half-assed history lesson because Alex Proyas (THE CROW, DARK CITY) has signed on to direct DRACULA YEAR ZERO for Universal, home of the monster movie.

True to its name, YEAR ZERO will explore the origins of His Royal Paleness, which inevtiably leads to Prince Vlad’s life, who sold his soul to the Devil in order to protect his kingdom and family. During the film, Vlad will be ‘at the height of his powers’ and we’ll follow him down the path that leads him to eternal darkness.

After directing THE CROW and DARK CITY, I think Proyas let us all down with I, ROBOT. Not to say that it was a terrible movie, but it didn’t fulfill one the promise of gothic darkness promised to us by those first two films. Needless to say, a movie based on the origins of Dracula is born in blackness. No word yet on release date or casting, but I would personally love to see Gary Oldman in the role, but as we all know, been there, done that.