Chloé Zhao Boards Sci-Fi Western ‘Dracula’
Everyone in Hollywood wants to work with Chloé Zhao right now.
Nomadland is the frontrunner in the Academy Awards race. That’s a fact now. The Frances McDormand-led film is finding massive amounts of success in festivals and awards events, and has been doing so for months. While the Academy Awards ceremony is set for April 25, and we won’t know the nominees until March 15, the buzz surrounding Chloé Zhao’s festival darling is at an all-time high. Now, while we wait for her Marvel film Eternals‘ marketing campaign to kick off, Zhao has bagged her next blockbuster: a sci-fi western take on Dracula. Wowzers.
THR had the exclusive, which reaffirms that Universal is actively moving its classic monster properties around. Last year we learned that they had given the green light to a new version of Wolfman, with The Invisible Man‘s Leigh Whannell set to direct Ryan Gosling in the title role. That film will supposedly follow the style that made Invisible Man a huge (and refreshing) success before the COVID-19 pandemic shook the industry. And that’s not all, as Paul Feige (Ghostbusters ’16) still wants to make Dark War for Universal, which is said to be a massive project which brings together many of their monster IPs in an explosive way.
Chloé Zhao’s seemingly zany take on the material will be original, and Universal Pictures president Peter Cramer showed his excitement in a statement:
“Chloé’s singular lens shines a light on stories of the overlooked and misunderstood… We are thrilled to be working with her as she reimagines one of the most iconic outsider characters ever created.”
Zhao added:
“I’ve always been fascinated by vampires and the concept of the Other they embody. I’m very excited to work with Donna, Peter and the team at Universal to reimagine such a beloved character.”
It looks like Universal is doubling down on the director-based approach to the monster properties after the Tom Cruise-led Mummy reboot, which was supposed to set up a shared Dark Universe, crashed and burned in 2017. Blumhouse’s The Invisible Man was cheap to make and proved to be an incredibly interesting take on the original character, bringing the concept of an unseen threat to the present and completely recontextualizing the premise. There is no guarantee every new project born from these new plans will be as good as Leigh Whannell’s surprise hit, but abandoning the “MCU wannabe” approach is probably a good thing.
This news also makes me wonder about Karyn Kusama’s Dracula, which was announced last year as another Blumhouse-produced reimagining. We don’t know for sure if Universal had a role in that project, too.
For now, it appears that Universal is doing its own thing (a Zhao-helmed blockbuster) while the folks at Blumhouse and Kusama stick to what they do best; not every upcoming classic monster feature will mark a collaboration between the two companies.
Francisco J. Ruiz is that guy who has watched Jurassic Park a thousand times and loves Star Wars. His hunger for movies is only matched by his love for video games. He graduated in English Studies from the University of Malaga, in Spain. As he keeps writing about what he enjoys (and doesn’t) for websites all over, he’s continuing his studies.
