Nicolas Cage is set to play Dracula in Universal’s “Renfield,” a monster movie centering not on the infamous vampire, but rather his notorious lackey.
The call sheet may be confusing. That’s because Cage is starring alongside another Nic, Nicholas Hoult, who is portraying the unhinged henchman known as Renfield.
An origin story, the upcoming film is expected to take place in the present day. It’s not clear how much it will stick to the source material, Bram Stoker’s 1897 horror novel “Dracula.” In the literary thriller, R.M. Renfield was an inmate at a lunatic asylum. He was thought to be suffering from delusions that compelled him to eat live creatures in the hopes of obtaining immortality, until it’s later revealed that he’s under the influence of one Count Dracula.
Chris McKay, the filmmaker behind “The Tomorrow War” and “The Lego Batman Movie,” is directing and producing “Renfield” from a screenplay by Ryan Ridley (“Rick and Morty”).
“Renfield” is Universal’s latest attempt to fashion a cinematic universe around characters from the studio’s vast monster vault. After Tom Cruise’s 2017 reboot “The Mummy” flopped in theaters, the studio shifted its strategy away from interconnected stories and instead began to focus on standalone features. It has also been keeping production budgets on the lower end, making it easier for spooky pics to turn a profit. For example, the studio’s most recent monster-verse entry “The Invisible Man” starring Elisabeth Moss, grossed $143 million worldwide in 2020, far less than “The Mummy” and its $409 million global box office haul. However, “The Invisible Man” cost only $7 million to produce while “The Mummy” cost nearly $200 million.
Universal will test its low-cost approach with several supernatural-themed projects in has in the works, including “Invisible Woman” directed by Elizabeth Banks and “Wolfman” with Ryan Gosling.
“Renfield” will be produced by Skybound Entertainment’s film team, including Kirkman, David Alpert, Bryan Furst and Sean Furst. McKay’s producing partner Samantha Nisenboim will serve as an executive producer.
The Hollywood Reporter first reported the news of Cage’s casting.