Luke Evans and his British accent has won over Universal and the producers of Dracula Year One, or whatever its final title will be, according to Variety. He will play Dracula aka Vlad the Impaler.
Alex Proyas was originally attached to direct Dracula Year One with Sam Worthington playing the title role, but Universal pulled the plug on the movie because the budget was too high. Proyas left and went to Paradise Lost, but that too was shut down over budgetary concerns.
With a new script from Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, Universal is ready to give it another go with Gary Shore at the helm.
According to producer Mike de Luca, Dracula Year One will chronicle Prince Vlad's effort to keep the Ottoman empire from overrunning his small country. In a moment of desperation, the young prince heads up a mountain said to be "haunted and full of bad black magic." There he turns into Dracula of lore and will use his new powers to repel the Turks.
"As written it's literally on the scale of Braveheart with Dracula, so it's a lot of...it's armies," de Luca said. "It's an invading Turkish army. It's a lot of supernatural action."
With the new script and a supposedly lower budget, the armies and the supernatural action may not be so numerous anymore.
