Konami’s video game franchise Castlevania is one step closer to a theater near you. According to Daily Variety, Universal Pictures’ Rogue genre label has signed on to distribute the $50 million vampire action flick in North America and several international territories following the pullout of Dimension Films. Rougue will handle the film in the U.K., Spain and German-speaking territories, while other international sales will be covered by Crystal Sky Ent., which is producing and co-financing the pic.
Castlevania is being directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, who previously tackled the video-game adaptations Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil, in addition to directing Alien Vs. Predator and Event Horizon. With this latest effort, he plans to provide a new take on the Dracula mythology, likening it to Batman Begins. The script primarily takes place in 15th century Transylvania as Romanian prince Vlad Tepes begins his blood-sucking career. A spokesperson for Rogue says the film will be in the vein of recent action-laden vampire movies Underworld and Blade, with a strong romantic element.
The popular Castlevania game has the vampire-hunting Belmont family chasing Dracula across centuries in their quest to rid the world of his kind. Like the game, the film will mostly take place in Dracula’s Castle, which Anderson says will be a character unto itself. Castle interiors will be built in Budapest and Anderson and producing partner Jeremy Bolt are scouting locations in Hungary and Romania. Shooting is set to begin next spring.
It seems Anderson can’t keep away from video-game adaptations. He and Bolt are finishing a third Resident Evil installment and are developing a film a film based on Atari’s Driver franchise for Constantin Films and director Roger Avery, who scripted Robert Zemeckis’ upcoming animated feature Beowulf and co-wrote Pulp Fiction with Quentin Tarantino.
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