Universal Pictures genre label Rogue has boarded Paul W.S. Anderson’s Dracula project “Castlevania,” a $50 million videogame adaptation produced and co-financed by Crystal Sky Entertainment.
Rogue will distribute the pic in North America and is also taking rights in the U.K., Spain and German-speaking territories. Crystal Sky is handling sales for the rest of the world.
Anderson’s script spans many time periods but mostly takes place in 15th century Transylvania. It reps a fresh take on the much-filmed Dracula legend, mining back to its genesis in the story of the Romanian prince Vlad the Impaler.
“You could almost call this movie ‘Dracula Begins,'” Anderson said. “It’s an action/horror project in the vein of ‘Underworld’ and ‘Blade,’ and hopefully it will be a big franchise for us,” Rogue co-prexy Andrew Rona said.
“Castlevania” is a long-running game franchise by Japan’s Konami. It focuses on the duel across the centuries between Dracula and the vampire-hunting Belmont family, played out within Dracula’s vast, labyrinthine castle.
“Ever since I made ‘Event Horizon,’ I’ve been obsessed with the idea of a location that’s a character in the story, of being trapped in an environment that’s out to get you,” Anderson said.
It will be Anderson’s third vidgame adaptation, following “Mortal Kombat” and “Resident Evil.” He and Bolt are also developing a movie version of the game “Driver” for Constantin, which Roger Avery will direct, and are in post on the third installment of the “Resident Evil” franchise.
I’m not going to lie, people get a kick out of coming down hard on videogame movies, but I really enjoy the first Mortal Kombat movie, I even have it on DVD (not the second!)
Anyway, it will be interesting to see what they do to turn this series into a movie. In the meantime here’s the animated intro to the upcoming DS game Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. Enjoy!
Via Variety & Konami