Yesterday it was announced that ROCKETMAN director Dexter Fletcher (who also did some uncredited work on BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY) has signed on to take the helm of a new Universal Monsters movie that will center on RENFIELD, the bug-eating madman who devotes himself to Dracula, but then begins to grow a conscience.
In the article my fellow news editor Mike Sprague wrote about this project, he included of clip of Renfield as portrayed in the Mel Brooks comedy DRACULA: DEAD AND LOVING IT… and as it turns out, that might be surprisingly close to the tone of Fletcher's RENFIELD.
According to The Hollywood Reporter,
this take on the project is described as a comedic, lighthearted approach in the vein of Taika Waititi's vampire mockumentary WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS, in which Renfield realizes he is in a bad, co-dependent relationship.
RENFIELD isn't expected to be a period piece, so it looks like we're getting a comedic Renfield / Dracula movie set in modern day. I did not see this one coming.
This project is the result of Universal setting aside their plans to make a series of interconnected reboots of their monster properties (a series that was meant to begin with THE MUMMY) and instead focusing on standalone reboots based on unique pitches. Blumhouse and Leigh Whannell's upcoming THE INVISIBLE MAN is the first film to come out of the new approach, and writer/director Paul Feig is now developing a monster mash called DARK ARMY.
The RENFIELD pitch was brought to Universal by The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman. His idea has since been fleshed out into a screenplay written by Ryan Ridley, who has a good amount of comedy experience. He was a staff writer and executive story editor on Community, wrote a couple episodes of Ghosted, and wrote ten episodes of Rick and Morty.
Kirkman will be producing the film through his company Skybound Entertainment, with Skybound's David Alpert, Bryan Furst, and Sean Furst producing alongside him.
We'll keep you updated on RENFIELD as it continues to move forward.