John C. Reilly vamps it up for CIRQUE DU FREAK

Variety say that Reilly will star in CIRQUE DU FREAK, a vampire movie adapted from the best selling children's series from Darren Shaun. The film which is being setup at the home of Horror (Universal) will see Reilly star as a vampire who hires a 14 year old girl as his assistant and sucks her into a undead state.. to fight on his side in the war between Vampires and Vampanese.

Sounds a little confusing. The successful series has more than 12 books, all of which have been picked up by the studio. Paul Weitz, one half of the directing brothers responsible for AMERICAN PIE, ABOUT A BOY and AMERICAN DREAMZ (but not THE GOLDEN COMPASS, which his brother Chris has sole directing credit for) has wrote and will helm the film by himself as his next feature, with production beginning in February. Chance for Paul Weitz to break away from his brother who could suddenly be propelled to the Hollywood A-List if THE GOLDEN COMPASS is a success. Only problem I have is children's series turned films like THE DARK IS RISING, ERAGON and STORMBREAKER... no matter how critically acclaimed the source material is, have turned out like a load of crap.