Blood Count: Spider-Verse co-director Peter Ramsey to helm 1950s vampire movie

Paramount Pictures has acquired the period vampire thriller script Blood Count, which was written by Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse co-director Peter Ramsey. Ramsey is attached to direct the film, with LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s company SpringHill producing. James will receive a producer credit on Blood Count alongside Jamal Henderson and Spencer Beighley.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Blood Count is described as a

film noir social thriller set in 1950s L.A. with supernatural elements. Intriguingly, it is also said to be loosely inspired by the life of Ramsey’s father, a jazz musician.

They say that any further story details are “being kept in the coffin” for now. The trade does note that Ramsey has broken two records: he became the first Black filmmaker to direct a big budget studio animated feature when he made the 2012 film Rise of the Guardians, and then became the first Black filmmaker to win the animated feature Academy Award with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Ramsey is an executive producer on the back-to-back Spider-Verse sequels that are heading our way, and has directed and executive produced an upcoming “live-action/CG hybrid fantasy mini-series” called Lost Ollie for the Netflix streaming service.

Ramsey shared directing credit on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse with Bob Persichetti and Rodney Rothman. He also directed an episode of the Netflix animated series We the People.

Blood Count may end up being Ramsey’s first live action feature, but it has some competition: he also has a biopic of blues musician Robert Johnson called Love in Vain set up at Paramount. We’ll have to wait and see whether Love in Vain or Blood Count end up going into production first. Of course, since I write for a website that’s dedicated to the horror genre, I’m rooting for the horror project to start filming first.