The Dracula-themed The Last Voyage of the Demeter has been lingering in development for nearly a decade, but it finally looks like things are picking up. The film is based on a portion of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula in which the titular vampire was transported on a ship from Transylvania to London. The film takes place during the voyage and centers on its affect on the ship’s crew (ie. Dracula goes a-hunting at sea). David Slade was originally going to direct with Noomi Rapace and Ben Kingsley set to star, but that iteration of the project never moved forward.
New life was breathed into the film when The Descent helmer Neil Marshall signed on to direct this past May, and now producers are zeroing in on the film’s lead. Hit the jump for more, including an update on the status of Rapace and Kingsley’s involvement.
Per Bloody Disgusting, Viggo Mortensen has been offered the lead role (not Dracula) in The Last Voyage of the Demeter. Moreover, the site says that Kingsley is still attached to play the ship’s Captain and Rapace “may” still be starring as a character named Anna Billington. It’s important to note that actors get offered roles all the time, so Mortensen could easily turn this down, but the project should prove enticing. Marshall is coming off of directing what’s quite possibly the best Game of Thrones episode to date (“Blackwater”), and Last Voyage of the Demeter is said to be very much in the vein of Alien in that “a crew is slaughtered one-by-one by a mysterious passenger.”
It’s assumed that scheduling is the major obstacle in signing all three actors. Kingsley has lined up a bevy of projects for the near future (including Iron Man 3), while Mortensen is poised to shoot the Eastern Promises sequel early next year once his schedule clears up. Demeter sounds like a promising project and Marshall’s involvement makes it all the more appealing. Hopefully this thing can finally get in front of cameras sometime this year.
Source:collider.com
by :Adam Chitwood
Aww, I thought Viggo Mortensen was going to play Dracula! That would have been fun.