Must be day of the Vampire! Here’s a crackling bit of news that, if true, will skyrocket a project that was pretty much unknown to me to the forefront of most intriguing upcoming films. The film is THE UN-DEAD, and with a little bit of research I learned that our very own Arrow actually broke the news of its existence in late 2005. (Read that story HERE.)
THE UN-DEAD is nothing less than the official sequel to the original DRACULA, meaning that it was recognized and approved by Bram Stoker’s estate. Written by scholar Ian Holt, the story picks up 25 years after the events of the Dracula novel with Stoker’s surviving original characters re-surfacing . Mina, Jonathan Harker, their son Quincey, Lord Holmwood, Dr. Seward and Professor Van Helsing are all about to face their greatest fear — the evil they once thought dead and buried is yet undead.
Jan De Bont is attached to produce, and now Blackfilm is claiming Ernest Dickerson (DEMON KNIGHT, BONES) will be sitting in the director’s seat. Not only that (here’s where it gets iffy), they are saying Javier Bardem, Monica Belluci, and John Hurt are all in negotiations to play the Count, Lucy, and Van Helsing, respectively (pretty sweet cast, all around).
This is fascinating stuff, but I’ve really got to wonder – why would a project of this magnitude be under the supervision of Ernest Dickerson? Nothing against the guy, I like some of his work (he’s directed several episodes of HBO’s utterly brilliant THE WIRE), but seriously, the SEQUEL to DRACULA is being helmed by the guy responsible for SURVIVING THE GAME? I guess the “approval” of the Stoker estate only extends so far…
Stay tuned for more info, because as this story breaks out across the ‘net, we’ll be inundated with either various confirmations or flat-out denials. I for one am hoping that at least the Monica Belucci part is true, cuz let’s face it, everybody wins whenever she’s on screen.
Useless trivia – Monica was in Francis Ford Coppola’s rendition of DRACULA as one of the Count’s luscious, baby-eating vamp hotties.
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