Dracula-tweaking detective thriller Harker is in the middle of looking for a new director, since Jaume Collet-Serra is now tied down with myriad other projects, including air marshal pic Non-Stop. But help appears to be at hand, with Deadline reporting that Eli Roth is now in talks to step in.
Harker, which has been cooking for a while at Warner Bros., already boasts Russell Crowe as one of the key players in the story. But while earlier reports that had him taking the role of Jonathan Harker, he’s actually playing Dracula.
See, the script by Lee Shipman and Brian McGreevy re-imagines Bram Stoker’s tale as Scotland Yard detective Harker hunting down Dracula, who has been murdering people around London. The idea is to use this film as a launch point for a franchise about the Harker character, with different villains in each film. Think Van Helsing, we suppose, without the rubbishness. Hey! Wonder if Crowe's Les Miserables buddy Hugh Jackman is available for the role?
That, of course, is assuming the first movie is a hit and even gets made, with the plan to start cameras rolling next year. The man who made Hostel has been busy of late, producing and co-writing The Man With The Iron Fists, co-scripting / producing and acting in Aftershock and even cropping up for a brief cameo in Rock Of Ages. He’s also been busy overseeing Netflix-produced drama series Hemlock Grove. But if he does take on Harker, it’ll be his biggest challenge yet.