Dracula WILL Battle Jack the Ripper in Breck Eisner's 'Blood of the Innocent'
Good news for those of you hungering to see two horror cinema stalwarts go at it mano-a-mano for the first time. Dracula and Jack the Ripper are getting ready to get it on in Breck Eisner's Blood of the Innocent, based on the acclaimed indie comic by Mark Wheatley, Rickey Shanklin and Marc Hempel. More after the jump.
We first broke the news last year that Eisner was developing Blood of the Innocent, but, as is often the case in Hollywood, getting the necessary funding was apparently proving to be a challenge, and some feared the project would linger in limbo. Well fear not! Variety reports that Inferno Entertainment "has acquired underlying rights to the series and is funding development and production of the feature, which is being co-produced with Circle of Confusion. Jim Siebel, Marc Butan and Bill Johnson are producing for Inferno; Circle of Confusion partner David Engel and VP Stephen Emery are also producing along with Ksana Golod."
Here's the rest of the Variety scoop...
"'Blood' has been in development at the production/management banner since last year. Breck Eisner ("The Crazies") is attached to direct and Bill Marsilii ("Deja Vu") is writing."
"Project is based on a comicbook series pitting Dracula against Jack the Ripper and published by Warp in 1985. "Blood of the Innocent" was written by Rickey Shanklin & Mark Wheatley and drawn by Marc Hempel & Mark Wheatley."
"Pic will be set in 1888 London and story follow a wayward British prince, who secretly undertakes a mission to save England from a vampire invasion, only to go down in history as the infamous serial killer Jack the Ripper."
"Circle of Confusion has developed several comicbook-based series for TV including AMC's 'The Walking Dead' and 'Powers,' just picked up to pilot by FX."
Having interviewed creators Wheatley and Hempel numerous times over the years, I can attest that both are not only talented comic book creators, but incredibly nice guys, and Blood of the Innocent, like most of their work, is well deserving of one's attention. Here's hoping that with the film moving forward a new trade paperback collecting this classic series will see print soon. And that film adaptations of their other comics -- books like Breathtaker, Tug & Buster and Frankenstein Mobster -- will follow.
