Last week when
Guillermo del Toro was linked with The Great and Powerful Oz, I warned you to take every story involving the Mexican maestro with a huge grain of salt. The reason being, del Toro is a big name director and now he is free from the shackles of
The Hobbit, it's inevitable that stories are going to turn up here, where and everywhere with what he might, or might not make as his next feature. With that in mind -
Pajiba is reporting the exclusive that del Toro has written a treatment for a feature film at Universal based on the character of
Van Helsing, the famous vampire hunter who spent his life trying to take down Dracula in Bram Stoker's famous 19th century novel. We are assured this isn't a prequel, sequel or remake of the completely misguided, silly, CGI crap-fest that Stephen Sommers spewed out six years ago, wasting the perfect lead in
Hugh Jackman in the process
. This is instead is a brand new project. Del Toro has reportedly wrote an action horror story out of the obsessive slayer that is being developed at del Toro productions, and is currently seeking a writer to further flesh it out. That's all Pajiba have, and if it's true - I imagine this won't be a film del Toro will direct but one of the many treatments he has birthed for one of his students to expand, and eventually direct themselves. Sadly with it setup at Universal, this won't be one that could be made in the Spanish language like the del Toro produced horror
The Orphanage, which is a huge shame as a Spanish
Van Helsing/Dracula movie might be just what audiences need to freshen up the character right now.
Instead, Universal will very much be looking for a movie along the sames lines as
The Wolf Man, and their forthcoming remakes of
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde and
The Invisible Man. This very much fits in with their new line of Universal Horror, though we just wonder if this mantra has slowed down a little after the problems
The Wolf Man had and it's pathetic $61 million domestic total from a $150 million budget. Even with the Worldwide Box Office taken in ($139 million) - Universal are banking on it hitting big on DVD to see any kind of return on what was a disastrous production.
Back to del Toro's
Van Helsing then, and the story is an easy one to fabricate, but because of that (if you think about it) - it is also an easy story to believe. Del Toro dealt with vampires in his co-written novel
The Strain and made his first Hollywood movie a while back with
Blade II. 20th century Gothic fiction clearly is something that interests him right now also with deals set up at Universal for him to make
a Frankenstein re-imagning and an adaptation of the gothic thriller
Drood. Both those projects were part of this article I wrote
I re-posted a few weeks back detailing what deals del Toro had on the table for his immediate future.