Last month we learned that Universal had come to a first look deal with superstar writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci(Star Trek), to produce and develop new films based on two flagging franchises: The Mummy and Van Helsing. Tom Cruise had been attached to Van Helsing ever since Guillermo Del Toro was attached, but when the director bailed out, Cruise stuck around. Now while doing press rounds for his upcoming dramedy, People Like Us, Kurtzman spoke a little bit about Van Helsing, and the direction they have for it....
Kurtzman: "Well, I don’t want to give away too much, because we are actually at the very beginning of talking about what to do with it. But I do feel like the Van Helsing that Anthony Hopkins plays in [Bram Stoker’s] Dracula is sort of the parody version of it, and the Van Helsing that Hugh Jackman played was obviously in a different place as well. I think that these kinds of movies have evolved a lot since then. You know, The Dark Knight was a major, major corner-turning moment in the way that genre and superhero stories could be told. Really grounded in reality. Really grounded in really cool things. That’s what I’d like to do without sacrificing the fantasy element. We aspired to do that as well on Trek, you know, keep it “real.” That’s such a different franchise than Batman, but that’s really what we wanted to do. And we’d love to do that with Van Helsing."
Well that sounds like a reboot to me, and I think Kurtzman's got the right idea in going that route. But what I'm not so sure about is what their take on the character will be. Are they going to try and find some middle ground between the Hopkins and Jackman versions? That doesn't sound like a good idea at all, and they may be better off picking one or the other. [CraveOnline]
