It's already been a year and a half since it was first announced that Universal is teaming up with The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman for a film about Dracula's lackey Renfield, and it still doesn't sound like we're going to be seeing the movie any time soon. During a conversation on Kevin Smith and Marc Bernardin's podcast Fatman Beyond, Kirkman described Renfield as being "in development" and said it's "some time" down the line. But Kirkman did take a moment to describe the approach being taken to the project, while making a joke about how violent his work tends to be:
We're doing this cool movie for Universal that's a focus on Renfield. It's a story about him being Dracula's henchman and how shitty a job that is. It's a fun, extremely violent comedy, because I've got a crutch and it's violence."
Kirkman wrote the treatment for the film and Rick and Morty writer Ryan Ridley, who was also in the writers room on Amazon's animated adaptation of the Kirkman comic book Invincible, has turned that treatment into a script that Kirkman says is "brilliant".
Rocketman's Dexter Fletcher was attached to direct Renfield at the end of 2019, but last month it was announced that The Lego Batman Movie director Chris McKay has replaced Fletcher at the helm.
Kirkman will be producing the film through his company Skybound Entertainment, with Skybound's David Alpert, Bryan Furst, and Sean Furst producing alongside him.