In 2012’s Hotel Transylvania, the big generational gap was between Dracula (Adam Sandler) and his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez). But for the sequel, due next year, the arrival of Drac’s estranged dad Vlad, played by living comedy legend Mel Brooks, will cause even more trouble.
Turns out that Vlad, who spends most of his life living in a cave, doesn’t exactly see eye-to-eye with his son either. And he’s not the most welcome visitor to the hotel for monsters that sonny boy runs with Mavis and her human beau Jonathan (Andy Samberg). So when he arrives at the hotel during a family get-together, expect issues.
"He’s like my real, honest-to-goodness personality. I'm pretty grumpy," Brooks tells USA Today. "It was a good choice. He doesn't treat Dracula with a lot of respect and they're often at odds. It makes for some wonderful comedy."
Sandler apparently called the man who made Young Frankenstein to offer him the role, and Brooks enjoyed working with him in the voice booth. "He's easy to play vocal ping-pong with," he says, adding, "he's very helpful in indicating there's more than meets the eye here. There are some complicated feelings that should be expressed, and he helped me with that." With most of the supporting vocal cast back for the sequel (including Steve Buscemi and Kevin James, with Keegan-Michael Key taking over Murray the Mummy from CeeLo Green), the first film’s director Genndy Tartakovsky is once more overseeing the madness. Hotel Transylvania 2 will be out in the UK on October 9 next year.