Way back in 2005, it was announced that Paul W.S. Anderson – following the success of his video game adaptations Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil – had signed on to direct a film adaptation of the Castlevania video game franchise. That project ended up being stuck in development hell, and as years passed Anderson decided to produce the film rather than direct it. At first, he passed the helm over to Sylvain White (Slender Man). Then in 2009, James Wan (Saw) signed on to direct. Wan wasn’t involved with Castlevania for a long time… but in a recent Instagram post, he revealed that he was involved long enough to contact Nicolas Cage about playing Dracula!
Wan mentioned our near miss with a Castlevania movie starring Cage as Dracula after watching Cage play Dracula in this year’s horror comedy Renfield:
When Wan started working on Castlevania, he told Bloody Disgusting he would “be working on the script with a writer to give it a new spin, different to the previous versions….. The thing I love about what Konami did with Castlevania, was taking the iconic Dracula mythology and Eastern-European setting, and retelling it with a Japanese pop-cultural sensibility… For once, the human hero is as sexy and dangerous as the vampire villain, and his weapon of choice was what attracted me to the project in the first place – The Vampire Killer Whip.”
The Castlevania games mainly take place in the castle of Count Dracula, who resurrects every hundred years to take over the world. With the exception of some games, the players assume the role of the Belmonts, a clan of vampire hunters who have defeated Dracula for centuries with the Vampire Killer.
The Castlevania film project ended up collapsing due to rights issues, but we did get four seasons of a Castlevania anime series on the Netflix streaming service.
Do you wish a Castlevania movie had been made with James Wan directing and Nicolas Cage playing Dracula? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.
Cage has said he’s interested in starring a full Dracula movie after playing the character in Renfield.
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