News out of the Cannes Film Festival suggests that vampire movies are not quite dead yet. Director Neil Jordan and producer Stephen Woolley will reteam for the all-in-the-family vampire pic, Byzantium. Based on an original script by Moira Buffini (Jane Eyre), Byzantium is the story of a deadly pairing of a mother vampire (Arterton) who turns her daughter (Ronan). In addition to the principal cast members, Byzantium also stars Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes and Jeremy Irvine (War Horse).For more information on Byzantium, hit the jump.Jordan and Woolley have previously worked together on The Company of Wolves, The Crying Game and, most notably as far as Byzantium is concerned, Interview with a Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles. Per THR, Woolley commented on how their pairing on Byzantium came about.

“I love the horror genre and we’ve been working on this for three or four years. I sent it to Neil and he liked the script. We’d both recently revisited Angela Carter’s book [which The Company of Wolves was based on] and it was just chance that when I called [Jordan], we were thinking along the same lines.”

Buffini’s script was initially based off a youth play, but has darkened the tone of Byzantium and made the subject material more adult. A previous project of hers, ‘Tamara Drewe’ saw Arterton cast in the eponymous role, so it will be interesting to see if they continue to work together. You can catch Arterton next year as Gretel in Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters.

In weakly related vampire news, Saoirse Ronan has recently been cast as the lead in The Host, an adaptation of a Stephenie Meyer (Twilight) novel that surprisingly does not contain one sparkling vampire or brooding werewolf.