While director Alex Proyas is still fully entrenched in post-production on his upcoming film Knowing, he spoke briefly with ShockTillYouDrop about two more projects he has in development: Dracula Year Zero and The Tripods. As we reported last year, Dracula Year Zero is an origin story for the legendary vampire, while The Tripods is a post-apocalyptic story where humanity has been conquered and enslaved by aliens who travel in giant three-legged machines based on the series of novels by John Christopher. Proyas had the following to say about the two projects, either of which could end up being next for him.
"I'm not a fan of remakes or sequels — I haven't done any and I'm not really that excited by them usually. In the case of Dracula, the reason I got excited about the project is I read a particular script that puts the whole legend on its head in every conceivable way and comes out with something that is both a kind of an ode to Bram Stoker's original Dracula, in that it's kind of a prequel to that, but it also redefines the character to such an extent that I found it quite exciting, so that is very much a kind of reinvention of that character and it's why I got excited about it."
"Both are very exciting projects but at this stage, we're still in the budgeting process for both, so I can't really tell you much more than that."
The Tripods adaptation was written by Proyas and Stuart Hazeldine, who is also one of the writers on Knowing and Dracula Year Zero. And personally, the Tripod books were my favorites when I was a kid. They were able to fill the void and answer my questions after I had finished War of the Worlds by exploring what would happen if the aliens weren't effected by Earth's bacteria (which I always found hard to believe in Wells' story). I'd love to see this brought to fruition. As for the origin of Dracula, well, it looks to be an aligning of two of the most popular trends in the current zeitgeist of film: vampires and origin stories.
Not very excited for another vampire flick, but TRIPODS sounds intresting.
For everyone who is interested in The Tripods: 25 years ago, the first two books of The Tripods trilogy have been adapted as a TV series with 25 episodes. (Just look for it at imdb.com - you'll find this news here about the film too...) I quite liked that series when I was young, so I hope this will become an interesting film.
To me any high budget movie about alien invasions or aliens is fine with me...besides the war of the worlds remake.
i want to see a movie about Vlad Tepês but i don't think Proyas doesn't have the guts to do it! Vlad Tepês is the baddest mother fucker ever lived and i want to see thousands of enemies on a stake,that would be awasome and chilling at the same time! When they do it in ''300'' style it would be a blockbuster and everybody would be offended by the images of the true Vlad tepês!
EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!! the tripods series was the first books i ever really loved. i read them over and over still and im in my 20's now. i always thought that they would make a good movie, but i dont want to get my hopes up. seriously, they are so good. everyone should read them.
haha. **they "were the first books i ever really loved" that shows you how smart i am.
@6 Alex really does need to add a "edit" option for comments =P and Both of this flicks sounds promising I'm cuious as to how they think Dracula became the first vampire without someone to infect him.