Time is a flat circle, or so that one TV show said, and everything old is constantly new again, and so it’s time. Time for a new generation to experience a cinematic Dracula played by an actor whose casting is so obvious, it seems impossible he hasn’t played the role before. In the ’90s, we got Gary Oldman as Dracula. This made perfect sense at the time. But the ’20s will also get the Dracula we deserve, and his name is Nicolas Cage.
Cage, according to The Hollywood Reporter, has joined the cast of Universal’s Renfield, the studio’s latest attempt to make Universal Monsters into a thing. (Previous attempts include that Tom Cruise Mummy movie.) Renfield is set to star Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: First Class) as Dracula’s flunkie, a human believed to be insane. (Tom Waits played him in the 1992 Dracula.)
Plot details have not been announced, but the movie is expected to be “comedic in tone.”
Other than providing the voice of Spider-Man Noir in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Cage hasn’t been in a big studio movie for a while, choosing instead to appear in films like Wally’s Wonderland (pictured above) and Jiu Jitsu. He generally seems like he’s having a good time, a vibe which he’ll presumably bring to his role as Renfield’s master. Imagine the relish with which he might make his henchmen eat bugs and rats! The mind boggles.
Renfield is being directed by Chris McKay, whose credits include The Tomorrow War and The Lego Batman Movie. The screenplay is by Ryan Ridley (Rick and Morty) and the story outline was done by Robert Kirkman—yes, the Walking Dead guy. There’s no word yet on when it will arrive in theaters.
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