Back in December it was announced that Brad Pitt’s Plan B production company was working on a movie called Vlad, about the 13th Century Romanian ruler, Vlad The Impaler, who later became the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Of course in real life, Vlad wasn’t a vampire, and the new action heavy film will concentrate on him as a young prince and how he became known for his resistance against the Ottoman Empire and cruelty to his enemies, rather than getting into any possible bloodsucking.
While the original script was written by actor Charlie Hunnam (Queer As Folk, Children Of Men, Green Street, Nicholas Nickelby), THR reports that Scott Kosar, who wrote The Machinist, has now been brought in to work on the screenplay. It suggests that this may be a rather blood-drenched historical tale, as Kosar also wrote the remakes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Amityville Horror and the upcoming The Crazies.
Music video director and photographer Anthony Mandler will direct the movie.
However, this does mean there are now rival Impaler movies in the works, as while Vlad looks at the historical truth about the infamous prince, there’s also Alex Proyas’ Dracula: Year Zero, which would follow Vlad’s story to find out how he became the vampire of Bram Stoker’s legend. It’ll certainly be interesting if both get made, so we can see truth and fiction completely colliding on the big screen.