Well, Robert Englund’s certainly been in the news recently. Yesterday, he made headlines when he confirmed that he would not be playing Freddy Krueger in the remake of A Nightmare On Elm Street currently being developed at Platinum Dunes, and today he’s announced that he’ll be directing the horror film, The Vij.
Now, regular readers of Empire Online will know that our Deputy Editor, Amar Vijay, is known to us as The Vij. But, instead of making a film about an evil web designer who leaves at 6 o’clock on the dot come hell or high water, Englund’s The Vij will apparently be based on the novel by high-falutin’ Russian author Nikolaj Gogol (one of the authors name-checked in The Divine Comedy song, The Booklovers, fact fans).
Gogol’s book is about an evil genie who influences a young priest, causing him to fall in love with an old witch and commit murder – not necessarily in that order.
Englund will also star in the project, presumably as the evil genie (he’ll have to go some to beat Andrew Divoff’s Wishmaster – a film in which Englund cameoed, of course – in the Great Screen Evil Genie stakes), while Russian actress Olga Schuvalova will play Alina, the female lead.
We’re most excited, though, about the casting of Christopher Lee, who can assure you that he’s signed on to play a God-like character called The Father. Lee presently has five films in post, according to the IMDb, so he’s clearly not slowing down at age 85. More power to him, we say!
Casting for the other roles, including the priest, is underway for the dark Gothic fantasy. At the very least, we want Amar to have a cameo. The Vij starring in The Vij? That would just blow our minds.
Shooting is scheduled to start in April, in Italy.