When Hollywood discovers a good thing they tend to capitalize on it as much as possible. Take the recent rash of apocalyptic movies: 2012, The Road, and The Book of Eli for example. All of them take on some sort of apocalyptic event and its aftermath and examine it in a slightly different way. 2012 focuses on the event itself, while the other two are stories of people surviving in the aftermath.
Clumping similarly themed movies together is nothing new in Hollywood. Remember at the end of the millennium when a whole slew of 'end of the world' movies also hit screens.
One theme that has always been popular in books, movies, and television is vampires. Over the years they've gone through cycles of popularity but they've never really gone away, and now it seems as though every other movie and TV show is vampire themed. Television shows like True Blood and The Vampire Diaries are enjoying quite a bit of success, while the Twilight Series (along with many others) is taking over movie screens. Now there are two more vampire movies to look forward to.
Dracula Year Zero will Star Sam Worthington
Universal's Dracula Year Zero is currently in development and has no start date yet. It centers on the origins of the Dracula tale, combining classic vampire mythology with the real history of Vlad the Impaler (the original inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula). Supposedly it will show him as more of a vengeful hero than the monster we all now associate with the name.
Current Hollywood "it-boy" and Avatar star, Sam Worthington has supposedly signed on to star, and Alex Proyas (The Crow) will direct.
The Brad Pitt-Produced Vlad
Vlad is another Dracula-themed movie that is currently in the works. This one is supposed to be an action-oriented story with a bit of a rock 'n' roll theme that will focus on Prince Vlad the Impaler as a young man. No stars are attached yet, but the script is being re-written by Scott Kosar who previously penned The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, The Machinist, and The Crazies (the original script was written by actor Charlie Hunnam). Music-video director and photographer Anthony Mandler is on board to direct, and it's being produced by Brad Pitt's company, Plan B.
Despite the two movies having very similar themes, there's a good chance they will be two very different movies (although some said that about The Road and The Book of Eli and they turned out to be essentially the same movie). Regardless, it's fairly safe to say that these two will bear no similarity to the sweet-as-pie Twilight movies that have dominated the box office over the last little while. It should be a refreshing change for people who like a little bloody violence with their vampires.
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