While we still wait to find out what is going on with his presumed next effort, Hellfest, Neil Marshall is making sure that his follow-up is ready to set sail. The Last Voyage of the Demeter has begun casting and it seems Neil is going for a higher paid crowd this time ’round.
Ben Kingsley remains on board as ship captain and now word is coming through that Viggo Mortensen is in talks for the lead, Henry Clemens. If I’m remembering correctly from past announcements involving Demeter (and there have been PLENTY), the lead character is supposed to be the ship’s first mate.
Partially based on the Stoker novel, the film will involve the ship’s passengers and crew being picked off one by one at the hands of Dracula on his trip from Transylvania to London. Basically, it’s a redressed slasher film with the Count as the unstoppable killer. Noomi Rapace was previously attached alongside Kingsley to play a character named Anna Billington, but there’s no word about her current involvement. One has to wonder if the similarities between this and Alien/Prometheus will cause her to move on to other pastures.
As I’ve said before, this sounds like a winner in the hands of Marshall and I hope it comes to pass. This property hasn’t had the best of luck making it to the silver screen over the past decade, after all. If Viggo does sign on*, this would likely film after he finishes up work on Hossein Amini’s The Two Faces of January and David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises sequel. That would set it up for a mid-2013 shoot, giving them plenty of time to continue to building a wonderful ensemble cast**. It also allows for Marshall to still shoot Hellfest before hand, assuming the current rewrite has turned out well.
Once again, who would you like to see as ol’ Alucard in this tale of terror?
Source | Bloody-Disgusting
* – And there is no guarantee that he will. The man has flirted with quite a few mainstream properties recently (Man of Steel, Snow White and the Huntsman, The Counselor, etc.) and ultimately passed on all of them. That said, at least this gives us a strong idea of where Marshall’s head is at.
** – I’ll be shocked if Sean Pertwee and Liam Cunningham aren’t on board this vessel somewhere.