SDCC '09: James Wan to Write and Direct Castlevania!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
By: MrDisgusting

Bloody-Disgusting can exclusively announce here that James Wan, the co-mastermind behind the Saw franchise, and director of Dead Silence and Death Sentence, will be co-writing and directing Castlevania for producer Paul W.S. Anderson.

Inside you'll find a tid-bit from Wan about his forthcoming adaptation. Sylvain White was originally slated to direct. Castlevania is an adaptation of the popular NES game from the 80's that has since become a massive video game franchise.



"I'm very fresh on this project, so its early stages and I'm still trying to work things out, but the producers love my vision for it," James Wan tells Bloody-Disgusting in an exclusive chat. "I'll be working on the script with a writer to give it a new spin, different to the previous versions. This will have my stamp on it which Konami is very excited about.

"The thing I love about what Konami did with "Castlevania", was taking the iconic Dracula mythology and Eastern-European setting, and retelling it with a Japanese pop-cultural sensibility," he continues. "That’s the East-meets-West tone I want to visually expand on for the film. I’m thrilled by the opportunity to make a highly stylized, fantasy, action film that focuses on the gothic storyline and the cool, anime-like characters. For once, the human hero is as sexy and dangerous as the vampire villain, and his weapon of choice was what attracted me to the project in the first place – The Vampire Killer Whip.”

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/16838

What?!:eek: You mean, Tidy Boll isn't doing it?

The first time I saw the game was in the 80's someone at school was playing it on one of the computers.

i am interested in who they are going to cast for the role of simon belmont. the prince of persia film has jake gyllenhall playing the lead character- so hopefully this one will be good. castlevania was always one of my favourite video games from the 80s- i just hope james wan doesn't butcher the film version of it.

What?!:eek: You mean, Tidy Boll isn't doing it?

The first time I saw the game was in the 80's someone at school was playing it on one of the computers.

Hey, anyone is better than "Bowel Movement" being director.

I'm not into all of the games of the series, there's like 16 or 17 games out in this series.

The one that I have played the most was the N64 Castlevania from 1999. I also played the one for the PS2 Lament of Innocence.


For a while it looked like the movie wasn't going to happen so.. here's to what Mr. Wan is going to do with it.

i am interested in who they are going to cast for the role of simon belmont. the prince of persia film has jake gyllenhall playing the lead character- so hopefully this one will be good. castlevania was always one of my favourite video games from the 80s- i just hope james wan doesn't butcher the film version of it.

Yeah, I'm wondering too on who Simon Belmont is going to be.

Yeah, I'm wondering too on who Simon Belmont is going to be.

if they are going to cast a big name actor, i hope it isn't someone like justin timberlake. at the moment, i cannot envisage anyone that could play simon belmont. i remembered the 80s cartoon captain N- the game master, and i was mortified when the show portrayed him as aloof and goofy, a self- rightous, arrogant twat when simon belmont was nothing like that at all in the castlevania games.

if they are going to cast a big name actor, i hope it isn't someone like justin timberlake. at the moment, i cannot envisage anyone that could play simon belmont. i remembered the 80s cartoon captain N- the game master, and i was mortified when the show portrayed him as aloof and goofy, a self- rightous, arrogant twat when simon belmont was nothing like that at all in the castlevania games.

I remember that from a while ago. I'm not too familiar with it.

I do know that Castlevania fans say that the show did not accurately portray Simon Belmont. Some tolerate it because this is an old cartoon that not many are familiar with and some treat it like it doesn't exist.

I remember that from a while ago. I'm not too familiar with it.

I do know that Castlevania fans say that the show did not accurately portray Simon Belmont. Some tolerate it because this is an old cartoon that not many are familiar with and some treat it like it doesn't exist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI8tF8sbAP0

what surprised me was the concept for the cartoon was by nintendo themselves and so i'd thought that it would retain the likeness of the characters. also belmont had that awful long chin and bad tan he looked like a poor man's dolph lundgren :lol:!

actually, come i think of it, paul walker from the fast and furious might be a good choice to play simon belmont.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI8tF8sbAP0

what surprised me was the concept for the cartoon was by nintendo themselves and so i'd thought that it would retain the likeness of the characters. also belmont had that awful long chin and bad tan he looked like a poor man's dolph lundgren :lol:!

actually, come i think of it, paul walker from the fast and furious might be a good choice to play simon belmont.

Hmm, that's not the Simon Belmont I know in that cartoon.

when i first saw simon on captain N, i thought 'oh my goodness, is this for real?'. they turned him into a jerky type of guy and yeah, that was how he was portrayed on the show, as goofy and obnoxious. for some reason also, he looked kind of older too on the cartoon- on the video games front cover, he looked round about 20 plus-ish but on captain N he looked like he was 40-something.

P.W.A. ON CASTLEVANIA

Since the announcement here on Bloody Disgusting a few weeks ago that Saw co-creator James Wan would be getting beind the camera for the live-action adaptation of the popular NES game Castlevania, not much has been said. The boys over at MTV caught up with Producer Paul W.S. Anderson who talked a bit more about what we can expect.

“There’ll be the whip and there’ll be creatures,” Anderson said, referring to Simon Belmont’s weapon of choice and the mythical beasts he battles as he makes his way through Dracula’s castle in the original video game.

“James is doing a pass on the script to put himself into it with the tricks and the traps, which he is really good at,” explained Anderson. “One of the things with ‘Castlevania’ is it’s not just about the creatures but the environment trying to get to you as well. I think he is a terrific choice because a key part of ‘Castlevania’ is the intensity of being trapped within the confines of the castle, and he’s shown with ‘Saw’ that he excels with intensity in confined spaces.”

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/17128

Creature Designer Talks Castlevania
Source: Ryan Rotten, Managing Editor
May 4, 2010


There's no slowing down Aaron Sims, creature designer.

His work in Clash of the Titans is still being seen in theaters and he recently wrapped The Apparition for Dark Castle and the anticipated Green Lantern starring Ryan Reynolds.




Sims is presently attached to Castlevania, the adaptation of the popular video game which is to be directed by SAW director James Wan. The artist tells us the project is currently on the back burner until Wan finishes the supernatural thriller Insidious.

"'Castlevania' has been trying to find the right financing for it," says Sims.

"It's a big film with a giant fan base. They're not going through a big studio so it's about finding the right investors. James and I went to Romania and scouted locations."

As for the creatures he worked on, "There's a Medusa and the vampires themselves had a unique quality to them that falls into James' style."

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=15076