Looking over director Mark Waters' credits, I'm curious to know if we should expect a bit more humor in the feature adaptation of Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy than the source material calls for. The shiny new poster for the film doesn't hint as much. If anything, the words "Prepare to be Tested" suggest that we're in for serious vampire business with this film, which would be about on par with the tone of the book. But factor in the involvement of Modern Family's Sarah Hyland, who's playing Natalie in the film, and I still can't help but wonder if we'll see at least a few shades of Mean Girls - one of Waters' numerous comedy credits - in this adaptation as we get to know the supernatural teens attending St. Vladimir's Academy in Vampire Academy: Blood Sisters.
As I said though, the source material isn't particularly funny, though Mead does manage to bring us into the dark tale of lead character Rose Hathaway and her closest friend Lissa without wading unbearably deeply in vampire-teen angst. Vampire Academy is told from the perspective of Rose, a teen "Dhampir" - half human, half vampire - who's training to become a guardian of the Moroi, a peaceful group of mortal vampires who are regularly targeted by the Strigoi, the bloodthirsty, immortal Vampires who have a particular craving for Moroi blood. Rose hopes to be the personal guardian of her best friend Lissa, a Moroi attending school with her. The story begins with the two characters being hauled back to St. Vladamir's after running away for reasons later explained. Friendship, blood, romance and supernatural abilities all play their roles in this young adult saga.
In the film, Zoey Deutch (Ringer) will play Rose Hathaway, while Lucy Fry is set to play Lissa Dragomir. And Sarah Hyland is on board to play Natalie Dashkov, Lissa's roommate. And the cast also includes Gabriel Byrne, Shameless' Cameron Monaghan, Oblivion's Olga Kurylenko and Russian actor Danila Kozlovsky, who plays Rose's dreamy trainer Dimitri Belikov.
Going back to the poster, Yahoo previously posted a motion poster for the film, that's similar to the one above, and shows the St. Vladimir Academy crest filling up with blood…
It's worth noting the element symbols, which appear to be a hint at the various supernatural powers demonstrated by the Moroi vampires. The blood definitely screams serious, but take a look at the punny tagline below the crest: "Higher Learning. Higher Stakes." Vampires… Stakes. Am I grasping at straws here or should we expect at least a little bit of comedy?
Registration begins 2014 - a nod to the release date of the film, which just so happens to coincide with Valentine's Day - a great day for red. So we still have a while to wait for the adaptation to hit theaters, but the new poster is an indication that the Weinstein Company's gearing up to start promoting it. In the meantime, to stay up to date on the film, be sure to like the movie's official Facebook page and follow the Vampire Academy movie Twitter.
