Russell Crowe To Stake Dracula's Heart in Harker?
Revisionist horror places Jonathan Harker as a Scotland Yard detective tasked with capturing Dracula after a series of murders in London.
After being linked with both the RoboCop reboot (something he denied) and Darren Aronofsky's Noah's Ark epic (which he should film this summer if financing comes together), Vulture reports that Russell Crowe has this week found himself linked to starring in a big budget Hollywood movie. And it isn't either of them... Oscar-winning Crowe is being eyed to play the title character in Harker, a new take on Bram Stoker's famous 'Dracula' mythos setup at Warner Bros. Leonardo DiCaprios Appian Way are producing, and I imagine it is he who made the call to his Body of Lies co-star about the film. Directed by talented helmer Jaume Collet-Serra (Unknown, Orphan), the setting is changed from Transylvania to London, with Jonathan Harker tracking down the monstrous undead on behalf of Scotland Yard after a string of murders, in what sounds an awful lot like Alan Moore's From Hell. In Stoker's novel, Harker is a lawyer hired by Dracula to look after the sale of his estate but here the hope is that Harker can become some kind of franchise character like Sherlock Holmes, and if he successfully takes down Dracula and audiences like what they see, perhaps Jack the Ripper would be next? A spec script from writers Lee Shipman and Brian McGreevy impressed WB to acquire this concept a while back and now it looks like it is going full steam ahead with Collet-Serra's attention to the live-action adaptation of Akira no longer being required with that film on hold. Though with Crowe likely to film Noah this summer, this one may not be a go project for the best part of a year. Crowe seems to be going through a hunger to try out new things right now, having attached himself to a diverse set of projects that perhaps three or four years ago he wouldn't have. He has two high profile gigs booked on the horizon with a major role in the Broadway musical adaptation Les Miserables opposite Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway for The King's Speech director Tom Hooper underway right now having already shot the Marlon Brando role of Superman's biological father in Zack Snyder's Man of Steel. He also has a supporting role in Akiva Goldsman's directorial debut Winter's Tale booked. He has also filmed a small role favour for his mate RZA's directorial debut The Man With The Iron Fists. Nice to have him taking on challenging roles again after he kind of went away for a little while.