Earlier today, Encore reported that Alex Proyas’ Dracula: Year Zero would be shooting early next year in Australia and that Worthington was attached to star. This was interesting news for two reasons. First, last we heard about Worthington and this project, his name was “under consideration” for the title role. Secondly, it didn’t seem likely that the project would shoot early next year since Worthington is scheduled to do Clash of the Titans 2 during that time.
We’ve now done some digging and discovered that Worthington is attached to play real-life historical figure Prince Vlad of Transylvania (pictured above, who may have been the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula) and that the plan is to shoot in June 2011. As a fan of Alex Proyas (Dark City, I Robot) I’m very excited to see his take on this supernatural thriller, especially with the movie most likely getting a large budget to work with.
Back in January, Steve spoke to producer Mike De Luca about the project and he revealed a lot of info. Hit the jump for what he said along with a list of Worthington’s other projects.
In addition to Clash 2 and Year Zero, Worthington is also attached to Avatar 2, Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future, The Last Days of American Crime, Man on a Ledge, and Quatermain.
Here’s what producer Mike De Luca told Steve about Dracula: Year Zero back in January:
What is circling near the top for you? You have like 30 projects listed on IMDb.
De Luca: Well, Drive Angry we talked about. It has a March start date. We have something that I love to death with Alex Proyas at Universal called Dracula Year Zero that we’re hoping to kind of see if we can get a compelling package for that together to get Universal thinking that we can be one of their bigger pictures for the near future. So I’m going to try to put a lot of time and attention into that one because I would love to see that see the light of day.
Yeah, I would too actually.
De Luca: Oh, have you read that?
I try to avoid…we talked about this a while ago…
De Luca: You’re right, yeah. You’re not a big….
Well no, I try not to read a lot of scripts…the set visits I do are enough to expose me to everything.
De Luca: Right.
Saying that, I think we talked about the whole Dracula thing where you mentioned that it’s a really big movie. Could you sort of tell people like….I mean what’s a little bit more. Have things changed in the last year or two on it?
De Luca: No, these writers came up with the ingenious-what I think is ingenious-approach combining historical Dracula with Bram Stoker’s Dracula. So it chronicles the efforts of a young prince, Vlad of Transylvania trying to keep the Ottoman empire and the Turk’s of the time from using his small country as a stepping stone to invade Europe. So there’s a historical basis for all of that history that’s in the script, but when his back is up against the wall and he can’t figure out how to keep the Turkish army out of his country and keep their hands off his country’s children, which they want to kidnap and press into their army as something they used to call the Jannisserie core, I guess the Roman’s did a version of it also, but this taking of male children from host countries and pressing them into military service for the invading army is another thing he’s trying to prevent. Because his own son is being threatened with that kidnapping. And in the script that we have, he was actually a victim of it himself. He earned the reputation of being the impaler while he was serving the Turks.
One Turk in particular, which is the antagonist in the movie, so in a moment of desperation he looks at this mountain top in Transylvania that all the gypsies in his country say is haunted and full of bad black magic. And he’s never believed in any of that supernatural kind of what he thinks is hogwash. But in a moment of desperation he ascends that mountain to see if there’s any truth to any kind of power that he could use to keep the invading army out. And he finds something that gets him to where we have come to know him as Dracula and uses that power source to kind of fight the Turks after he’s changed.
Well it’s interesting though with the success of obviously the Twilight films and vampires and that kind of stuff, do you think it’s easier to sort of do this kind of…do you think there’s a new angle on this or do you think that Twilight is like a separate kind of entity that doesn’t apply to the others?
De Luca: I think it applies. I think vampires are endlessly appropriate candidates for reinvention because there’s something in the DNA in that mythology that appeals to every generation. Every generation owns their own version of the vampire myth. For me growing up because I was a film geek there was a little bit of the Christopher Lee Dracula movies until the Langella movie. For other people it’s Blade. For other people Underworld. For kids now it’s Twilight to the extent that Twilight kind of transcends vampire mythology because it’s also Romeo and Juliet and it’s also any love across the tracks, you know, impossible unattainable object romance that teens really embrace when you’re going through that part of your life. But I think it’s always right for reinvention and I think there’s something in the DNA of that myth that appeals to all demographics. And I think that’s why you can get away with so many different iterations at once.
So basically the hold up, just to be clear, is sort of finding…because it sounds like it’s a really big movie?
De Luca: Right. Finding the right…the comfort level in terms of cast, budget, you know how we’re going to the effects. As written it’s literally on the scale of Braveheart with Dracula, so it’s a lot of…it’s armies. It’s an invading Turkish army. It’s a lot of supernatural action. It’s wonderful. Like it’s an epic love story. It’s got everything you want in a movie like this but it’s tricky and it’s big so we’re trying to figure out how to do it in the most efficient way.
I completely get it. So this is just something that…so this is basically your….
De Luca: Huge passion project, yeah.
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Twilight is a poorly written soap opera, Bran Stokers book is a masterpiece, and San wothington is only being cast because of crapatar, not interested in the slightest.
Twilight is a poorly written soap opera, Bran Stokers book is a masterpiece, and San wothington is only being cast because of crapatar, not interested in the slightest.
WHAT ???? Fuck man, why is Worthington suddenly in every role coming out?
VLAD should be played by ROBERT CARLYLE, who can actually act and is a double for Vlad (in that painting)
He can also do a very good Eastern accent (james Bond villain!) And can play a fucking psychopath (Trainspotting/28 weeks later/Bond/Ravenous … hell, most films he is in he's psycho)
“why is Worthington suddenly in every role coming out? “
Well, he's not sitting aimlessly waiting to be GIVEN these parts, he's taking initiative in own hands and actively looking for options. He and his mates from Full Clip discovered “Last Days” and are producing it, it was him who brought the idea of “Quatermain” to the studio, and now thanks to his involvement Proyas and De Luca's love labour project – which has been in production limbo for long years – has a chance to take off ground. What's exactly wrong about it, eh?
This could very well go to hell in a handbasket. Worthington isn't a bad actor but everything he's been in seems lackluster to me. Dracula is something people have done numerous times so here, the script has to be spot on. A friend of mine is actually writing a story about the historical figure so he may be interested.
Worthington better be rocking the same 'stache as the dude in the comparison photo next to him…
Avatar was lackluster?….
Yes, it was.
It was like a Pixar version of the E.T. ride at Universal studios.
If this wasnt from the director of the crow and dark city I probably wouldnt care about it.
doesnt read scripts ? set visits ? no wonder worthington is signing up for so many bad projects. his star will fall as quickly as it rises.
“What's exactly wrong about it?” That Worthington can act as much as a rock. That's what is wrong.
Horrible, just horrible.
This interview was incredibly annoying to read. Did it have to be verbatim so that both of these guys could cut off mid sentence and then ramble on for the remainder of the paragraph??! It sounded like a bad pitch meeting honestly, and for a film that if it never sees “the light of day” it will be too soon.
On a side note I'm not sure who De Luca thinks he's kidding, but if he thinks this project appeals on any level to the same demographic as Twilight, he's just retarded.
Like viciously retarded.
This is some of the WORST miscasting I have ever heard ! , they might as well have cast Ice Cube in the role. Worthington is one of the most “wooden” actors out there, I'm so sick of them casting this talentless hack in everything.
I get it, you don't like his acting, fine. De gustibus non est disputandum.
The point I was making was about him not being given anything for free, but working his butt off to find new projects and on the way helping other people to put their plans in motion.
Have you any valid comment to make ON THIS TOPIC?
Thanks dude. lol. I'll admit that I was not blown away by avatar at all. In fact, my first run through I was ready to turn it off.
I almost turned it off too! But I HAD to finish it to see if all the hype was deserved. It wasn't.
Right on…I just don't get how it made all that money. Interesting effects, but not a great movie by any stretch. Now the Saturday Night Live skit is awesomely funny. You Tube it if u have a minute.
That's the problem with any hyped movies. The expectations almost always exceeds it, and as a result you see a large number of less-disciplined movie-goers saying “well, THAT was so overrated!”
I saw Avatar before general release, and I was definitely blown away by the visuals, felt the story was filmsy, but overall a very solid film. That's what Avatar is, and anyone denouncing it with propaganda-esque hate is simply riding the Cameron hate train.
Bwah, I've come to suck…!
Sure his performances in Avatar and Clash of the titans were not great but Sam Worthington can act! He was great in movies like Bootmen, Dirty Deeds, Gettin Square, Thunderstruck, Rogue and Terminator Salvation. All actors have a few bad movies, even the best of them like the great Denzel Washington. Maybe instead of hating on someone for a few lacking performances you should watch all his movies and than spread your opinion all over the internet. My bet is no matter who got cast in the title role you would all still find something to winge about.
You're over-thinking it. I don't think there is a “hate train” for Cameron. The hate train is for the fans who don't think for themselves: They were already declaring this the best movie ever (based on hype), before they even saw an official poster. And even then, once the poster DID come out, it was half a blue face – and they went NUTS! Then it made a ton of money, and all of sudden Avatar was the “future of cinema”. (I hope not)
Anyway, the world class minds will go enjoy our movies – that are actually good – while the middle class minds are impressed by video games on the big screen.
Co-signed.
I wouldn't bet on it, though.
Sam is alright, but I am not feeling him as Vlad. After all this time iI have to have Gary Oldman's role sullied by this guy? After Clash of the Titans I could care less.
That isn't anything special. That is like praising a Foley operator. It's just his job to act and part of his craft is to do just that. Gets roles and help the rest of the crew hopefully put something on the screen for moviegoers to view.
Vlad should be played by Adrien Brody…it is enough to just look at the picture of Tepes above.
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