The powerhouse production team of Mike De Luca, Sam Raimi
and Josh Donen is set to tackle the vampire-western spec script PRIEST
from scribe Cory Goodman. Snapped up by Sony’s Screen Gems, the project’s
description goes a little sumtin’ like dis:
A warrior priest disobeys church law by teaming with a
young sheriff and a priestess to track down a band of renegade vampires who have
kidnapped his niece.
Who wants to lay odds that the reason the church forbids hunting vamps concerns
an ancient curse/pact/prophecy? Expected plot turns aside, the vampire-western
has been an underused sub-genre, though flicks like
NEAR DARK,
THE FORSAKEN, FROM DUSK TIL DAWN, and even
JOHN CARPENTER’S VAMPIRES tread in and around the setting with
results ranging from genre classic to entertaining diversion.
Since PRIEST will be doin’ it up true Western style, however, it does
offer a potentially unique world to be explored. We know high noon showdowns are
out, but might we get gun and tooth slinging at midnight? Or vampire horses? A
wink to why the Lone Ranger used silver bullets? Hints that the lack of hygiene
in the old days was to repulse hungry bloodsuckers? So many yummy possibilities.
Oh, and one quick note to the filmmakers: Vampire-Western contains two R’s,
but no P’s, G’s, and certainly no 13’s. Coincidence gentlemen? I think not.
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