Caffeinated Clint
If Robert Pattinson proved anything, it’s that the vampire’s don’t necessarily have to be played by tall orange-skinned charmers or slender light-globe-switchers that look suspiciously like Count Dooku from the “Star Wars” prequels. Heck, Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe are currently donning fangs in the Spierig Bros’ “Daybreakers”, Robert Downey Jr’s being courted to play (the role played previously by Tom Cruise and Stuart Townsend, respectively) the Vampire Lestat, and I’m pretty sure that was the little squirt from “Charlotte’s Web” looking all pale and bite-happy in “New Moon” a couple of months back.
If our buddies at Latino Review are on the money (and Kelvin and the troops usually are), the next big-screen vampire may be a – wait for it – Australian – – – and, if all goes well, he may be able to erase those awful memories of Matthew Newton as Armand (in “Queen of the Damned”) forever.Maybe.
Sam ‘Star of the biggest film of all time’ Worthington is in talks to star in director Alex ‘Knowing’ Proyas’s “Dracula : Year Zero”. As the title suggests, it’s the coffin-sleepers equivalent of “Batman Begins”, telling the origin of the legendary literary bloodsucker…. back before he was the the George Jetson to Van Helsing’s Mr Spacely. Yup, Transylvania… and all that jazz.
Proyas recently told us here at Moviehole that “Dracula : Year Zero” will be “a medieval epic” rather than a straight-up horror flick. “It’s actually a composite of [the Vlad the Impaler story], of the origins of the legend, and the Bram Stoker book. You could see it as a prequel to Bram Stoker’s novel, in some ways. All the cool bits out of Francis Coppola’s “Dracula“. You can see it that way as well.”
Last I heard the flick, written by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, was at the budgeting stage. Take it, if they’ve attached Worthington, Universal have their cash.
I’ll try and get in touch with Sam over the next few days, for the meantime, here’s a cool rumour to chew on.
