Nicolas Cage is set to star as Dracula in Universal Pictures' upcoming monster movie
"Renfield". The film will be directed by
Chris McKay (
"The Tomorrow War") from a script by
Ryan Ridley (
"Rick and Morty") based on an original story outline from
Robert Kirkman.
Nicholas Hoult will star as the titular character, Dracula's infamous acolyte and henchman, who in
Bram Stoker's 1897 novel was an inmate at a lunatic asylum who was thought to be suffering from delusions that compelled him to eat live creatures in the hopes of obtaining immortality, until it was revealed that he was actually under the influence of the vampire count. An origin story, the upcoming film is expected to take place in the present day, but it's not clear how faithful it will be to the source material
The movie is part of the studio's attemt to revive their monster movie franchise through several low-cost projects like
"The Invisible Man" starring
Elisabeth Moss. Other projects in the works include
"Invisible Woman" directed by
Elizabeth Banks and
"Wolfman" starring
Ryan Gosling.
"Renfield" will be produced by Skybound Entertainment's film team, including Kirkman,
David Alpert, Bryan Furst and
Sean Furst. McKay's producing partner
Samantha Nisenboim will serve as an executive producer.
Cage will also be seen in Lionsgate's
"The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent" in which he plays a fictionalized version of himself as a cash-strapped actor who also acts as a CIA informant in a drug sting.