Tag: Ryan Ridley

Posted on in Film News, News

‘Renfield’: Nicholas Hoult To Lead Universal Monster Horror-Comedy From ‘Tomorrow War’ Director Chris McKay

Universal Pictures is trying to develop a bunch of various films within the Universal Monsters branding and an upcoming project is one focused on Dracula’s familiar Renfield. The project was developed from a story idea by Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead, Invincible) and has a script from Rick & Morty writer Ryan Ridley.

It was originally going to be directed by Dexter Fletcher (Eddie The Eagle, Rocketman) but has since been replaced with Chris McKay (The Lego Batman Movie, The Tomorrow War).

McKay compared the film to Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead 2 when speaking with The Hollywood Reporter giving us an idea of what to expect from the horror pic’s tone.

“Renfield is a story about Dracula’s assistant set in modern times, and it’s kind of a codependency success story. And it’s a comedy. It’s a horror movie. It’s an action movie. It’s about bad bosses. It’s written by Ryan Ridley, who worked on Rick and Morty, and it’s a really funny and emotional. It’s gonna be like a hard-R action movie, crazy-violent in an Evil Dead 2 kind of way. That’s gonna be fun,” the filmmaker revealed about his upcoming Renfield project at Universal Pictures. 

Deadline has now revealed that British actor Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: First Class, Mad Max: Fury Road, Those Who Wish Me Dead) has been tapped to star just a week after landing the Searchlight thriller The Menu co-starring with Anya Taylor-Joy and Ralph Fiennes.

The film is said to be set during present day.

Universal is also developing a new Wolf Man film starring Ryan Gosling and a Dracula hybrid genre film from Oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao (Nomadland, Eternals), the latter might already have quietly started shooting.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Chris McKay Compares His Horror-Comedy ‘Renfield’ Movie To ‘Evil Dead 2’; ‘Rick & Morty’s Ryan Ridley Wrote The Hard-R Universal Monsters Pic

The Tomorrow War director Chris McKay was announced as replacing Dexter Fletcher (Rocketman, The Saint) on Universal’s Renfield movie, based on the Dracula assistant, and part of their Universal Monsters umbrella. The kicker is that the horror film will be a comedy written by Rick & Morty’s Ryan Ridley and McKay is teasing that it’s violence will be taking cues from Sam Raimi’s beloved Evil Dead 2.

“Renfield is a story about Dracula’s assistant set in modern times, and it’s kind of a codependency success story. And it’s a comedy. It’s a horror movie. It’s an action movie. It’s about bad bosses. It’s written by Ryan Ridley, who worked on Rick and Morty, and it’s a really funny and emotional. It’s gonna be like a hard-R action movie, crazy-violent in an Evil Dead 2 kind of way. That’s gonna be fun,” the filmmaker revealed about his upcoming Renfield project at Universal Pictures. 

If you’re unfamiliar with the 1987 film directed by Sam Raimi, it was pretty much a remake of the previous Evil Dead film, however, taking a slapstick angle as the original was a slightly more straightforward horror movie without as many comedic elements. 

Ryan Ridley is part a group of Rick & Morty writers moving into the realm of live-action projects as Michael Waldron is behind the Loki series, worked with Sam Raimi on Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, and is attached for untitled Star Wars movie that will be produced by Kevin Feige. Jessica Gao is the head writing on Marvel’s She-Hulk series and Jeff Loveness is behind the script for Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania.

EVIL DEAD 2 – The second of three films in the Evil Dead series is part horror, part comedy, with Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) once again battling horrifying demons at a secluded cabin in the woods. After discovering an audiotape left by a college professor that contains voices reading from the Book of the Dead, Ash’s girlfriend Linda (Denise Bixler) becomes possessed by evil spirits that are awakened by the voices on the tape. Ash soon discovers there is no escaping the woods.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Film News

‘Tomorrow War’ Director Chris McKay Tapped For Universal Monster Flick ‘Renfield’

A while back it was announced that Rocketman and Eddie The Eagle director Dexter Fletcher was circling a new Universal Monsters project focused on Count Dracula’s brainwashed lackey, Renfield. The script is penned by Rick & Morty’s Ryan Ridley based on an original outline from Robert Kirkman (Walking Dead, Invincible), Ridley’s involvement suggesting a comedic-bend to the horror movie.

Fletcher has exited the project to focus on Paramount’s The Saint reboot starring Chris Pine and Universal has hired Chris McKay (The Lego Batman Movie, The Tomorrow War) to replace him as director, according to Deadline.

Renfield believed if he was loyal enough, his master Dracula would give him immortality and is institutionalized. The incarnation of Renfield that standouts personally for me is Tom Waits’ take in Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula from 1992 that starred Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins, and Keanu Reeves.

The studio attempted to re-brand the Universal Monsters by launching their own modern cinematic universe, Dark Universe, starring with Tom Cruise’s The Mummy only for the film to flop. Leading the studio to kill the Dark Universe and retool their plans by getting Leigh Whannell to direct a new take on The Invisible Man with the help of Jason Blum’s Blumhouse. Renfield is part of a wave of new Universal Monsters projects, the next one is expected to be a Wolfman remake from Whannell and starring Ryan Gosling. Some of the other movies include a genre-hybrid Dracula remake from Chloe Zhao (Eternals, Nomadland), Van Helsing from director Julius Avery (Overlord), talk of the studio still trying to get a director attached for a Bridge of Frankenstein remake and other various films in development.

McKay’s sci-fi action flick The Tomorrow War starring Chris Pratt was recently sold by Paramount to Amazon for a hefty $200+ million and will be released on July 2, 2021.

SOURCE: DEADLINE