Alex Proyas

[MacGuffin]

Proyas to direct Universal's 'Dracula'
De Luca to produce Vlad the Impaler tale
Source: Variety

Alex Proyas will direct "Dracula Year Zero," Universal's origins tale about Vlad the Impaler.

Project, being produced by Michael De Luca, is one of several in the works about the Romanian royal who inspired Bram Stoker's vampire tale.

Proyas ("I, Robot") was attracted to the script by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, enthusing over their "fresh take on the legend."

He said the project manages to play off the horror and the sympathy you have for a character that "sells his soul to the Devil to save his kingdom and family."

The scribes, who set up the project a year ago, said the goal was to show Vlad when he was still vital and to explore the fact that he's considered a hero in Romania for fending off the Turks.

"Usually when you see him, he's past his prime and 100 years old," Sazama said.

"In our movie, he's at the height of his powers," Sharpless added.

"Dracula Year Zero" reunites Proyas with De Luca, who shepherded "Dark City" when he was a New Line exec. It's also one of several monster movies in the works at the studio, which is prepping a third installment in its "Mummy" franchise and a "Wolf Man" redo starring Benicio Del Toro.

"One of the cool things about this is that we're doing it at Universal," Sharpless said. "This is the home of monster movies."

The script was the first spec sale for the writing partners, who are busy on a couple of other Universal projects, including Zack Snyder's "Cobalt 60."

Dueling Dracula projects set up around town include "The Historian," a contempo book about the search for Vlad the Impaler's grave that Brad Caleb Kane is adapting for Sony's Red Wagon shingle, and "Castlevania," an adaptation of a popular vidgame for which Rogue recently signed up director Sylvain White ("Stomp the Yard").

[Stefen]

I haven't seen one of his flicks in YEARS. I mean, probably from WELL before I started posting here.

Dark City was awesome though. I wonder how it holds up now.

Crow is probably overrated STILL.

[Gold Trumpet]

"Dracula Year Zero" reunites Proyas with De Luca, who shepherded "Dark City" when he was a New Line exec.

That's the good news. I'm really excited. Garage Days was a personal project made for nothing. It was also out of Proyas' element as far as what The Crow and Dark City did. I, Robot was a major blockbuster with major expectations. I imagine Proyas went in with numerous ideas but was forced to protect the sellability considering it starred Will Smith.

A lot of times the right studio or producer is the perfect ingrediant. It also feels like his kind of story. Proyas needs a return to form.

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Dark City Director's cut coming out! George Lucas Style
Source: TwitchFilm

I'm surprised that no one has talked about this yet, especially since Dark City has quite a large cult following. Well I was listening to Fangoria Radio and on there was an interview with writer/producer/director David Goyer about his latest film Invisible. In the interview he mentions that he had just been with Dark City's director Alex Proyas working on a brand spanking new Director's cut of Dark City, complete with beefed up special effects and a new and improved sound mix. Sounds pretty sweet to me. No word on when the disc will be released though.

[Gold Trumpet]

It could be good. It could also be too much. I'll buy the DVD but I also will hang on to the original which is still a quality DVD in general.

I wonder how the print will be for the added on scenes. Some filmmakers don't protect the extra print they have and when they to re-release their vision on DVD, the image quality is poor for the newly added on scenes. Nixon is an example of this.

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Cage to star in Proyas' 'Knowing'
Summit to finance, distribute apocalyptic thriller
Source: Variety

Nicolas Cage is set to star in "Knowing," a thriller to be directed by Alex Proyas. Summit Entertainment will fully finance and distribute the pic, which begins production March 17 in Melbourne.

Cage will play a teacher who examines the contents of a time capsule unearthed at his son's elementary school. Startling predictions in the time capsule that have already come true lead him to believe the world is going to end at the close of the week and that he and his son are somehow involved in the destruction.

Escape Artists partners Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal and Steve Tisch will produce. Aaron Kaplan and Sean Perrone are co-producers, and Norm Golightly and David Bloomfield are exec producers.

Escape Artists originated the project with novelist Ryne Pearson, who pitched it and wrote the first draft. "Knowing" has been rewritten by Stiles White and Juliet Snowden; Proyas and Stuart Hazeldine did the most recent draft.

Proyas last helmed "I, Robot."

"Knowing" gives Escape Artists three imminent production starts, including two at Sony. It is producing with Scott Free the Tony Scott-directed "The Taking of Pelham 123," starring Denzel Washington and John Travolta, and with Will Smith and James Lassiter's Overbrook Entertainment, it is producing drama "Seven Pounds," directed by Gabriele Muccino and starring Smith.

[MacGuffin]

David Goyer Talks New 'Dark City' Release!
Source: Bloody Disgusting

It was rumored a few months back that one of my favorite films of all time, DARK CITY, would be getting re-released with brand new special FX work added. No other details were revealed and it has been silent since then - until now. The other day I chatted with writer David Goyer, who is off in Chicago directing THE UNBORN for Rogue Pictures, who revealed a few more details on the project that any hardcore fan will appreciate. Read on for the skinny.

While on the set of his upcoming film UNBORN, writer-director David Goyer updated us on the re-release of DARK CITY, which he wrote for Alex Proyas to direct. "It's coming out fairly soon [and will] probably have limited theatrical, but Im not sure," he explains, "I have seen almost all of it and I took part in an over hour long making-of."

In addition to the special features, Goyer reveals that there's more to the re-release than just special FX upgrades. "[They re-did] the score and the cuts a little longer," he reveals, "all of the parties involved did fairly lenghtly interviews with us, they'll be incluced on there."

He's also quite sure that there will be a Blu-ray release. Join me in a lengthy scream of happiness. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Released in 1998, Alex Proyas, (The Crow) directs this futuristic thriller about a man waking up to find he is wanted for brutal murders he doesn't remember. Haunted by mysterious beings who stop time and alter reality, he seeks to unravel the riddle of his identity. William Hurt, Kiefer Sutherland and Jennifer Connelley all star, even Melissa George makes a cameo!

[MacGuffin]

New Line (via Warner) is releasing a Dark City: Director's Cut on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on 7/29 (SRP $19.97 and $34.99). According to the studio's press information, both discs will feature "enhanced picture and sound, never-before-seen footage and three commentary tracks that take you deeper than ever before into the world of one of sci-fis most exciting and revered tales." The Blu-ray will be a BD-50 disc, but we don't know what the audio format will be yet. Director Alex Proyas' new cut of the film runs 111 minutes (the original version was 96 minutes).

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Proyas Restores Dark City

Alex Proyas, director of the 1998 noir fantasy film Dark City, had the opportunity to restore the film to his original version for the upcoming 10th anniversary DVD release.

"It's quite a different version of the movie, and it's about 10 or 11 minutes longer, I think," Proyas said in an interview at Comic-Con International in San Diego on July 24, where he was promoting his upcoming film Knowing. "And it's just stuff that we had that we shot. It's effectively my first test-screening version of the movie--my fateful test screening of the movie, where people didn't quite respond in the way that the studio were hoping they would respond. And therefore certain adjustments were imposed."

The revised version more closely reflects Proyas' original intention, he said. "I was reminded about when I saw this cut, 'Oh, yeah, that's right. That's what I was trying to do,'" he said. "So it feels very different. ... You have to be careful, because a particular film that's been around for a while now, there's a fan base and there's an ownership of that version, and I don't want to come in and mess it up for them. So I hope I haven't done that. I believe this is a better version, and I hope other people will agree."

Besides wanting to mark the occasion of the film's 10th anniversary, New Line was also influenced by a fan petition expressing interest in seeing the director's cut of the film.

"They did this thing on the Web, too, which actually had an impact on the studio," Proyas said. "It's amazing how this stuff works, which was, like a ... petition. And they got a lot of people signing the petition and the studio actually paid attention."

Proyas said that he had a chance to redo some of the film's elaborate visual effects as well. "I guess it's like any other equation in the film industry," he said. "They've got to know they're going to make their dollars back. And it's taken some time for the movie to have enough of a following that they would feel secure enough that people would buy this thing."

Proyas doesn't tend to go back and watch his old films when he is finished with them, but in this case he was glad he made an exception.

"It was great fun, because it's been so long," he said. "I don't look at my movies. Once I've done a movie, that's it for me. I never want to see the thing again. I've seen it so many times. So literally I hadn't seen the movie for 10 years, and I could see it quite objectively. It was a good experience." The director's cut of Dark City will be available on DVD and Blu-ray on July 29.

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Sci-fi bug bites Phoenix and Proyas
Adaptation of Heinlein's 'Jonathan Hoag' in works
Source: Hollywood Reporter

The sci-fi saturation of the film biz shows little sign of letup. The latest project is a Phoenix Pictures feature based on a Robert Heinlein novela and written and directed by Alex Proyas.

Phoenix principals Mike Medavoy, Arnie Messer and Brad Fischer will produce the adaptation of "The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag," which they describe as a complex psychological thriller with plenty of action as well as some love interest. A title change is likely.

The deal with the "I, Robot" helmer closed several weeks ago, and the project will likely shoot after the Greek-born, Aussie-raised Proyas finishes "Knowing" for Summit.

Vince Gerardis, who reps the Heinlein estate and brought the project to Fischer, will executive produce along with Ralph Vicinanza. The budget will be in the $40 million-$50 million range.

Originally published in 1942, the offbeat tale centers on a man who becomes increasingly disturbed when he realizes he cannot account for his activities during the day, or even what he does for a living. He divulges his problem to the husband-and-wife partners of a private detective agency, and their investigation leads to a series of revelations they could never have fathomed.

"I read this story as a kid, and it really stayed with me," Proyas said. "It's part of my creative DNA."

Phoenix co-president of production Fischer described the project as "cool and original," and pointed out that Heinlein, who wrote about 30 novels and twice as many short stories, still is a pre-eminent icon of sci-fi literature 20 years after his death. His "Starship Troopers" was made into a 1997 movie that grossed $120 million worldwide and "Stranger in a Strange Land" became a counterculture classic tome in the '60s.

The deal marks another example, following David Fincher's "Zodiac," of Phoenix's strategy of internally developing and packaging big films with important directors. Next up for the company is Martin Scorsese's "Shutter Island," which toplines Leonardo DiCaprio and is in postproduction for Paramount; the Mikael Hafstrom-helmer John Cusack starrer "Shanghai" for the Weinstein Co.; and a revamped "Robocop" for MGM, which Darren Aronofsky will direct from David Self's script.

Proyas is in post on "Knowing" and is attached to direct the Universal project "Dracula Year Zero." Presumably, the Heinlein project will lense in 2010.

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EXCL: Alex Proyas' Dracula Year Zero Update
Source: Edward Douglas

ComingSoon.net/ShockTillYouDrop.com just got off the phone with filmmaker Alex Proyas (The Crow, Dark City) after talking briefly about his upcoming sci-fi thriller Knowing, starring Nicolas Cage. Proyas has been hard at work in the post-production of the film, but we wondered if there'd been any progress on the two other films he'd been developing, The Tripods, based on the series by John Christopher, and Dracula Year Zero, a proposed origin story for Bram Stoker's legendary vampire.

Both are still in active development so either could be Proyas' next project. "I'm working on a bunch of different things and the two projects I'm excited about are an adaptation of John Christopher's The Tripod stories that I've co-written with Stuart Hazeldine, who is one of our writers on 'Knowing', and the Dracula project," the Australian filmmaker told us. "Both are very exciting projects but at this stage, we're still in the budgeting process for both, so I can't really tell you much more than that."

"I'm not a fan of remakes or sequels — I haven't done any and I'm not really that excited by them usually," Proyas said when asked about his decision to make a movie based on a character whose had an extensive life in film. "In the case of Dracula, the reason I got excited about the project is I read a particular script that puts the whole legend on its head in every conceivable way and comes out with something that is both a kind of an ode to Bram Stoker's original Dracula, in that it's kind of a prequel to that, but it also redefines the character to such an extent that I found it quite exciting, so that is very much a kind of reinvention of that character and it's why I got excited about it."

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EXCLUSIVE: Alex Proyas Describes How He Would Treat 'Dark City' Sequel
Source: MTV

Alex Proyas will be the first to admit that his film "Dark City," which fizzled at the box office, took years to find its audience on DVD. Since its release in 1998, though, his story about a nightmare reality faced by an amnesiac trapped in a strange city has absorbed a cult following. Now, the director behind "Knowing" and "I, Robot" may actually get a chance to make a sequel.

"I always thought it would be intriguing to have Rufus [Sewell], who was the hero in the first one, be the bad guy," Proyas told MTV News. "He should turn nasty because he's got unlimited power. That's something I'd like to explore."

The ideas have surfaced since he originally wrote "Dark City."

"I didn't see it as anything other than the movie I made at the time," he explained. But the attraction is definitely there for Proyas.

Whether or not the original cast, which also included Jennifer Connelly and Kiefer Sutherland, would be on board to do a follow would remain to be seen. According to Proyas, however, the gears are already turning.

"There have been some discussions fairly recently," he said. "It's had this shelf life and just lately it's done well enough that there have been some discussions about a sequel."

[Gold Trumpet]

Sequels are never desired, but it's a good idea (so far). The hope is that Proyas still has the technical capacity to make a sequel that has the flavor of Dark City. Nothing he has done since the film has matched it - not even close. The idea of making Rufus Sewell the bad guy is good, but they better not just prick another no-name hero out of oblivion to defeat him. That would just be a bad imitation of the first. The hope is that they can find a satisfactory way to explore the world of Sewell's new inner realm as God.

Also, I bought and watched the new director's cut of Dark City. A few additions and take aways from the original, but all in all not much of a change. I disliked the removal of the introduction and the additions weren't all that necessary. The theatrical cut is still much better.

[MacGuffin]

Sam Worthington takes on 'Dracula Year Zero'
Period vampire epic also incorporates Vlad the Impaler story
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Sam Worthington, making his first deal since the success of "Avatar," is in negotiations to star in "Dracula Year Zero," a period vampire epic Alex Proyas is set to direct for Universal. Michael De Luca is producing.

Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless wrote the spec, which explores the origin of Dracula, weaving vampire mythology with the true history of Prince Vlad the Impaler. It seeks to depict Dracula as a flawed hero in a tragic love story set in a dark age of magic and war.

Universal's Jeff Kirschenbaum is shepherding the project, which has no start date and is still in development.

Web site Latino Review first reported Worthington's involvement.

By playing Dracula, Worthington is continuing to take on larger-than-life roles and tentpole projects. While he will be seen in the Helen Mirren thriller "The Debt," his next role is Greek hero Perseus in "Clash of the Titans." Last summer he played a cyborg in "Terminator Salvation."

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Proyas finds 'Paradise'
Director signs on for Legendary film
Source: Variety

Alex Proyas is finding "Paradise Lost" for Legendary Pictures, signing to direct an adaptation of the epic 17th-century English poem by John Milton.

Legendary's Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni will produce the project along with Vincent Newman ("A Man Apart") through his eponymous banner.

The project tells the story of the epic war in heaven between archangels Michael and Lucifer, and will be crafted as an action vehicle that will include aerial warfare, possibly shot in 3D.

Stuart Hazeldine developed the primary draft of the screenplay that was originally written by Byron Willinger and Philip de Blasi. Lawrence Kasdan provided a polish as well as Ryan Condal, who delivered the most recent draft.

The film will likely fall under Legendary's co-production and co-financing agreement with Warner Bros., which will distribute the film worldwide. Studio's opening "The Town," which Legendary produced along with GK Films and Thunder Road, this weekend.

Proyas' credits include sci-fi disaster thriller "Knowing," "I, Robot" and "The Crow."