Hollywood loves a good origin story, as it provides perfect ground for studios to develop franchises. In the last decade or so we've seen them do it with Batman, Superman and James Bond, and now it's Dracula's turn. While we've actually known about the project for years, the now movie set to star Luke Evans and be directed by Gary Shore, only today do we learn its official title. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Universal Pictures has officially titled the film Dracula Untold.
As you can probably glean from the name, the film will explore the history of Bram Stoker's famous vampire, but at this stage little else is known about the plot. It's been previously reported that it will be mixing elements from both reality and fiction, as the vampire mythos will be combined with the tale of Vlad The Impaler (the historical figure who inspired Stoker's character from the beginning).
This is actually the second time that the film has managed to make headlines in recent weeks. Late last month it was reported that Legendary Pictures is considering co-financing the project as a part of their new deal with Universal Pictures (which was formed after the former studio broke off its eight-year relationship with Warner Bros.). Doing so would make a lot of sense, as Legendary's specialty seems to be origin stories. The studio helped bring both Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins and Zack Snyder's Man of Steel to theaters and both wound up doing quite well.
While Dracula Untold was originally going to be released on August 8, 2014, it has since been moved to the more Halloween-adjacent October 3, 2014. While there's still more than a year to go before the release date, right now the weekend appears to be a good position. The only direct competition it currently faces is the animated comedy The Book of Life, which will certainly be going after a much different demographic than Shore's vampire horror story. That said, it will be fun late in the month to see both Dracula Untold and James McAvoy/Daniel Radcliffe's Frankenstein next to each other on theater marquees, the latter set to come out on October 17, 2014.
As of now the other other actor in the film besides Evans - who will play the titular monster - is Canadian actress and David Cronenberg-regular Sarah Gadon, who will be playing the female lead and chief love interest for the main character. With production starting in the next few months it probably won't be long until we hear about a slew of other names that sign on to the project. While you wait, enjoy a lookback at the cinematic Dracula that started it all:
