Monster Madness: Vlad The Impaler Action Flick & Dean Koontz’s Modern Frankenstein Adaptations In The Works

“The Machinist” screenwriter Scott Kosar has been hired to write the script for “Vlad,” which takes an action-oriented look at Dracula, or Vlad the Impaler. Charlie Hunnam (the blonde British kid of “Undeclared” who is all grown up now and looking like a real-life Thor) wrote the original draft and told EW in December that there would be no vampires in the film. “We don’t touch on vampirism. That was my one non-negotiable area when we were developing it,”he said, though it sounds like with a new writer on board, this might have changed. Music video filmmaker and photographer Anthony Mandler is directing. He’s directed countless music videos for contemporary folks like 50 Cent, Eminem, Rihanna, The Killers, Jay-Z and more. Brad Pitt and Dede Gardner are producing through their Plan B shingle. “The Machinist” might have a decent script (we’ve never read it), but no amount of revisionism — or notoriously massive weight loss on Christian Bale’s part — can convince us it is a good movie.

1019 Entertainment will be adapting Dean Koontz’s “Frankenstein” series. We’ve never read the books, but the idea — placing the famous Dr. Frankenstein, now a socially prominent and successful businessman, and his super-human original creation in modern-day New Orleans — sounds kind of terrible.

Director Neil Marshall (“The Descent” “Centurion”) is executive-producing the thriller, “Ghost of Slaughterford.” It’s being helmed by Ian D. Fleming, Marshall’s second-unit director on “Centurion.”

Despite rumors to the contrary, Pierce Brosnan says a “Mamma Mia 2” is dead. Maybe for him? That movie did a shit-ton of business and the studio would love to capitalize on it again.

Much like the 3D, “Alice In Wonderland,” Warner Brothers is looking to shrink the theatrical window for Zack Snyder’s “Guardians of Ga’Hoole.” It will be in theaters September 24 and will be on DVD by Xmas. Also “Alice In Wonderland” will be on DVD before the summer and has a March 5 release date.

Kevin Costner has a surprising amount of projects in the go including, “Little War of Our Own,” “Learning Italian” with Kevin Reynolds (“Waterworld”), another western, “Horizon” (which he will also direct) and a mini-series prequel for “Horizon” on A&E that will shoot this spring.

Magnolia has acquired the Sundance doc “Countdown To Zero.” Directed by Lucy Walker, the documentary focuses on the escalating nuclear arms race that still has continued since the Cold War ended, despite the media’s perception to the contrary.

Roger Corman is still at it. He’ll be directing “Sharktopus!” for the Syfy channel.

Disney’s “Rapunzel” has been retitled “Tangled.”

Restored “Metropolis” — with the new footage found in Brazil — was screened at the Berlin Film Festival recently. The film is coming out via Kino in April. We would imagine that there will be a theatrical release with DVD/Blu-Ray to follow.

Screenwriter Allan Loeb says he sees franchise potential in his penned-reboot of “Escape From New York.” What else is he going to say? Yeah, it’s probably only worth one film? Plus John Carpenter’s original, starring Kurt Russell, had a sequel set in L.A. anyhow.

Waaaay after the fact, Paramount has acquired Mike Judge’s workplace comedy “Extract” starring Jason Bateman and Mila Kunis for the U.K. Such a weirdly odd late date considering that picture came out in September of 2009 in the U.S.

90s big-budget hack Renny Harlin has finished his film, “Georgia.” It’s a drama centered around the war between Russia and Georgia, and focuses on an American journalist, his cameraman, and a Georgian native who become caught in the crossfire. It stars Val Kilmer, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Andy Garcia, Dean Cain, and Rupert Friend.