Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro spent a couple of years working on THE HOBBIT, only to depart the project with no start date in sight. Now he seems to be making up for lost time.
According to Pajiba, GdT is planning his own VAN HELSING over at Universal. Fortunately, it will bear no relationship to the indescribably terrible Stephen Sommers movie — del Toro will write an original action-horror treatment for the vampire-hunting character. At the moment, he is only setting up the story and producing the project, and a screenwriter is now being sought.
Van Helsing was first introduced in Bram Stoker’s novel “Dracula” and later made famous by Peter Cushing in a number of Hammer films (including the great kung fu mashup LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES). Anthony Hopkins played the fang-slayer in Coppola’s 1992 DRACULA.
GdT is well-known for his love of classic horror — he’s also working on (among a dozen other things) his own versions of FRANKENSTEIN, DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE and H.P. Lovecraft’s AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS. And like those, Van Helsing is in the public domain, so del Toro can go wild with the material.
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