Dracula Year Zero Rises at Universal

[-JKR-]

Last year Best Picture nominees American Hustle, The Wolf Of Wall Street did more than 100 million dollars each. Then there was Lone Survivor, Olympus Has Fallen, We're The Millers, The Heat which were all hits.

Even this year we have had two R Rated hits in the 300 sequel and Neighbours.

The trouble is, only one out of these had a tentpole budget - 300. Rest all were commercial movies, but modestly budgeted.

American Hustle, The Wolf of Wall Street and Lone Survivor were pretty much all pre-packaged and financed by other parties for the majors to distribute (next to being made for Oscar season). Olympus Has Fallen was produced by an indie company, and distributed by a minor company. We're the Millers and The Heat are exceptions, and comedies are pretty much the only R-rated movies majors are supporting right now. 300 is another exception, of course.

But, see, as much as I love tentpoles for the mass audiences and all ages, I think there should be more variety again. When we're dealing with Dracula, the material warrants an R rating. I wanna see the blood, next to a good story. And not just for gore's sake, but because it's adequate. If I'm watching an old-school action movie, I wanna see blood squibs when people are shot. I wanna hear some "**** you"-s here and there. Too much stuff is getting watered down when it should not.

And not every major studio's event movie needs to have a $100+ million budget. Absolutely not. And they shouldn't be treated as minor affair next to mega-budgeted tentpoles, neither.

But, on another page, when you see audiences flocking into The Amazing Spider-man 2, while ignoring Edge of Tomorrow, you notice that many of today's problems are the audiences' fault.

 

[slumcat]

Trailer is out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv4l8epUrNI

 

[chamber-music]

I like how they were filming in Northern Ireland so just used a bunch of Game Of Thrones cast member who were around.

I spotted the kid who plays Rickon Stark as Dracula's son, Tywin Lannister as OG Vampire and Thoros

Charles Dance vampire character in this looks better than his vampire character in the Underworld films.

 

[Tim_Riggins]

Mmmm, okay, I'm intrigued. They're going full fantasy with this, Dracula morphing into bats and launching attacks on the troops looks pretty cool.

 

[dark_b]

this looks very good. i expected a very bad movie.

 

[Fallen Angel]

Oh i like that.

Good to see another story of Dracula out there rather have that than the twilight era vampire films.

 

[Alien Anal]

That totally looks bad ass. Its nice to see fantasy that doesn't look like the clash of the titans remake.

Was i the only one thinking how much better MOS would have been if it was more fantasical like this movie instead of what we got.

 

[Donut]

Looks like these trailers are getting blocked

 

[Rowsdower!]

What the hell? Why did they yank the trailer?

 

[StarLord]

This actually looks pretty good.

 

[Blitzkrieg Bop]

A link to the Dracula Untold trailer. Scroll down to videos.
http://www.upcominghorrormovies.com/movie/dracula-untold

 

[Tequilla]

Looks terrible.

 

[LoganGambit87]

What the hell? Why did they yank the trailer?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZeax62lmLw

 

[nocomics]

It can't be any worse than The Legend of Hercules? It looks okay, but these types of movies don't ever do well at the B.O, but we'll see I guess.

 

[Green Goblin]

Is this a new Dracula origin story? It looks rather different than the one Bram Stoker told plus the book never went into this much detail about it.

 

[slumcat]

The book is pretty much mute on his origins are only sketchy.

This is basically an original story about how King Vlad Tepes become the Dracula of the novel. So this is kind of like a prequel to the novel of Dracula. Francis Ford Copolla version had a brief prelude where they recounted his origins but this is basically the entire movie recounting it.

I had read an earlier draft of the script. It is decent albeit a bit convoluted.

 

[dark_b]

the armor looks similar like the armor in Copolla movie. i think it looks amaaaaaazing.

 

[Loki882]

This looks pretty cool. However, I hope that one day we get just a straight-up Vlad Tepes movie. No vampires, no Stoker, no supernatural elements period. Just a movie about the man, his life, and his world.

 

[dark_b]

This looks pretty cool. However, I hope that one day we get just a straight-up Vlad Tepes movie. No vampires, no Stoker, no supernatural elements period. Just a movie about the man, his life, and his world.

when they do it will be promoted as the untold story. the real story. t:

 

[slumcat]

This looks pretty cool. However, I hope that one day we get just a straight-up Vlad Tepes movie. No vampires, no Stoker, no supernatural elements period. Just a movie about the man, his life, and his world.

That would be a straight up historical biopic. And those are very very very rare - only done as Oscar pics now and not tentpoles.

History on steroids is good tentpole material it seems. Battle of Thermopylae as 300. Life of Vlad Tepes as Dracula Untold. Both are basically fantasy fictional films about people who existed in real life.

 

[Loki882]

I didn't say that they WOULD do it. I simply WANT to see it. Vlad's life is interesting enough that it could make for a very good (and highly disturbing) movie all it's own, without any vampires.

 

[cryptic name]

I really wish they would do a movie with one of these classic monsters and actually do their damnedest to make it a horror movie. I don't want to root for Dracula, I want to be afraid of him.

 

[slumcat]

I didn't say that they WOULD do it. I simply WANT to see it. Vlad's life is interesting enough that it could make for a very good (and highly disturbing) movie all it's own, without any vampires.

Actually such a script exists! And it is written by Charlie Hunnam of all people. Brad Pitt bought the script in a bidding war and even a director was attached and James Gray hired to do re-writes but it never went beyond that it seems.

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2009/12/09/charlie-hunnam-vlad-dracula-movie/

But even this is of course a pumped a version even though it is not supernatural at all. It would be a big battle actioner in the vein of 300 with Vlad as this absolutely badass heroic figure.

Not quite sure if you were looking for something like this.

I think Dracula Untold might have actually killed this project as even the Dracula Untold is supernatural, it pretty much covers the same story.

 

[Fallen Angel]

If this is a success maybe spin off in to Van Helsing?

 

[slumcat]

If this is a success maybe spin off in to Van Helsing?

It takes place in the 1400's. There's no Van Helsing in the movie to spin-off into.