As news of Universal Pictures’ latest Dracula movie, the first joint venture of Thomas Tull’s Legendary Pictures (of The Dark Knight films and Pacific Rim), continues to heat up, even the title is changing.
Originally titled Dracula: Year Zero ever since it was planned as a Sam Worthington vehicle, the project is now entitled Dracula Untold. This follows on the heels that Universal is moving its release from August 2014 to October of the same year.
The project is set to star Luke Evans as the man who would become Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler) with many supernatural flourishes expected. It is also to feature Sarah Gadon, Dominic Cooper and Samantha Barks as a confirmed form of succubus from Eastern European mythology.
Not counting lower budgeted sequels, this will mark Universal’s fourth major adaptation of the granddaddy of vampires. As the studio to release the first official adaptation of the Bram Stoker novel with Tod Browning’s Dracula (1931), they left their mark on the character with the most iconic interpretation of a vampire ever put on screen: Bela Lugosi. They have since remade that film and the stage play it is based on with Dracula(1979) starring Frank Langella as the bloodthirsty count and Van Helsing (2004). The less said about the last one, the better.
Dracula Untold rises to the big screen on October 3, 2014.