Role Rumor for Adrien: “The Last Voyage of the Demeter”
Australian film site Dark Horizons is reporting this morning a possible new role for Adrien:
Freeze Dried Movies received a scoop with confirmation that both Val Kilmer and Adrien Brody could both have major roles in Sony’s upcoming horror thriller “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” being directed by Robert Schwentke. ‘Demeter’ is about the ship that carried Dracula’s coffin from Transylvania to England.”
EDIT: Did some looking around and many film sites have the same very limited information up for “The Last Voyage of the Demeter“:
“Last Voyage” expands upon the captain’s log chapter of Bram Stoker’s classic novel “Dracula.” It is the story of the terrifying ill-fated journey of the merchant ship Demeter, which carried Dracula’s coffin from Transylvania to England only to arrive at port with no survivors aboard.
Also found a June 2004 interview with the film’s original scriptwriter Bragi Schut, winner of the 2003 Nicholl Fellowship for his script “Season of the Witch“, which is also apparently in the production pipeline. In the article, he discusses a bit about the Demeter script:
For “Demeter” I had some experience already, because I spent a lot of time at sea. My Dad is a sailor and most of the men on my father’s side of the family are sailors. So I spent a lot of my childhood on boats. We sailed the Indian Ocean, the Black Sea. So I knew what boats were like, and it wasn’t difficult for me to make the world of “Demeter” feel real. The sequences that took place at night with the rocking cabin and sailors trying to sleep in a storm, all that stuff was easy enough. The stuff I had to research was the Dracula stuff, the mythology, vampire-lore. A lot of it you’re already familiar with from the movies, but I wanted to go back to the original gypsy legends.
So the story is based on Bram Stoker’s novel?
It expands upon a chapter from the book. The “Captain’s log” chapter. The whole book was done in this style where it’s told through letters and journal entries from Mina, Jonathan Harker, Van Helsing and so on. And there’s one chapter that deals with the passage of the Demeter. So I took those journal entries and dropped them into the script.
But he goes on to say that the screenplay was re-written by another writer, and that the movie was with Phoenix Pictures. The latest stories indicate it is now with Sony, with director Robert Schwentke and screenwriters Robert Schwentke and Mitch Brian.
A major role, eh? Anyone else interested in the possibility of Adrien getting to vamp it up?
February 8th, 2005 at 10:47 pm
i hope these rumors turn out to be true. this will be a great role for adrien because it will be in a totally different direction for him. i wonder what part he would play? it may not necessarily be dracula, although i think he’d make a great one!!
February 9th, 2005 at 12:41 am
The Hungarian Gypsy Prince HAS to play Dracula.
He can bite my neck anytime. *swoon*
February 9th, 2005 at 9:47 am
You know, my original reaction was just like Mags’ comment. Dracula here I come! I could just see Adrien slinking across the deck of the Demeter in his fine aristocratic garments, charming by day and stalking at night.
*Book Spoilers Ahead!*
Then I got the idea that I best go read Chapter 7 of Stoker’s novel to see just what exactly is said in the Captain’s log, and I was reminded that the Demeter is a cargo vessel, not a passenger one, and the 9-person crew of the ship did not know Dracula was on board in all those boxes of dirt. *Arghhh!* So there would be no real personal, seductively charming interaction on board for our Hungarian prince! That is if they stick to the orignal plot of the novel.
The log does tell of a few reported sightings by some of the sailors of a “tall, thin” man at night who was not a part of the crew. So there should be some spooky Dracula bits throughout the movie, but how much and of what nature? I imagine more horror than anything else IF they stick to the story as given in the Captain’s log. And part of the power of that story was the unknown. To maintain the spirit of the chapter, I would think any scenes with Dracula taking out the men one by one as the trip continues would be shrouded in mystery, so that the audience can feel the terror the crew is experiencing of not knowing what is going on.
Of course, this being a film, they might change the plot and have Count Dracula be aboard as a known passenger, and if they did that, they could throw in a token female passenger as well, for in the novel, there are no women aboard. That sounds more Hollywood to me, and a very likely possibility. They could take the tact of many later versions, including Francis Ford Coppola’s, with Dracula being characterized as more of a romantic figure, rather than an out and out monster.
Right now, even though it would cut Adrien-as-Dracula’s screentime, I would prefer sticking to the original plot. Reading that chapter yesterday gave me CHILLS because of the uncertainty of the Captain’s log. It was because they did not know what was happening to the disappearing men, and all the bad weather, that the terror level was so high. I imagine that the original script stuck to the story, seeing as how that writer appears to be more in the gothic horror mode. With the re-write, I bet there was tinkering going on to appeal to a broader audience.
Adrien would seem to be the logical choice for Dracula, especially if that character is going to have a lot of screen “face” time, while Val Kilmer is most assuredly going to the play the Russian captain. After reading the chapter yesterday, the only other character I could see Adrien taking on, other than a new one created for the film, is the first mate, who happens to survive for a long time like the Captain, and who appears to have realized what was aboard. I thought it interesting that the Captain’s log noted that while the other sailors were Russian, the first mate was Roumanian, which of course is Transylvania. That character could really get some good screen time, seeing as that he announces to the Captain to stay with the wheel while he goes off to face Dracula alone in what could certainly be a great, dramatic confrontation.
Of course I have gotten myself all excited about this and I’m just itching to read that script!!
February 9th, 2005 at 8:10 pm
You know, I was thinking on the way home tonight that I had to read the book again, or at least this chapter! But then I saw you posted above that the rumor’s untrue…boo-hoo. Adge would have been great either as Dracula with an expanded role or as the first mate, I think!
The weird thing is that I have been wanting to write a rather similar story–a shipboard vampire story. I’m beginning to think that I assimilated it from the book somehow. It’s been ages since I read it.
February 10th, 2005 at 9:57 am
Mags, I actually went to the library and checked the novel out! I had wanted to read it anyway for some time now, but the disappointment has sort of shot that for the time being.
I find that interesting that you had an idea for such a story before this was announced. Was the vampire to be a stow-away or a passenger?
February 18th, 2005 at 12:28 pm
Whoops, I missed this comment! Sorry!
This is an Age of Sail story and the ship is a Royal Navy ship. They come across a deserted, foundering ship with no one but a woman on board…you see why I now I’m thinking I assimilated Dracula!