Consider it a rumor no more – Universal has officially drafted in Wrath of the Titans screenwriter Dan Mazeau to pen a new (final?) treatment for its upcoming Van Helsing movie.
First reported by The Tracking Board, Mazeau is now expected to pump fresh blood into the fantastical reboot under the watchful eye of producers Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan. Together, they’re widely considered to be the creative focal point of the studio’s shared universe, which will introduce moviegoers to a terrifying realm of gods and monsters when The Mummy looms into theaters this summer. Kurtzman is behind the lens for that one.
Van Helsing, meanwhile, has been gestating in the early stages of pre-production for months, and TTB notes that Dan Mazeau was first linked with the action-horror property back in September. Since then, Oscar nominee Eric Heisserer (Arrival) and Jon Spaihts (Doctor Strange) have each had a crack at the script, and though it’s unclear as to how much input Mazeau will actually have, the end-goal is to engineer a reboot that is, frankly, as scary as can be.
At least, that’s according Eric Heisserer, who spoke to Collider earlier this week and said the following:
“I don’t know what it’s going to look like at the end of the process, so I’m gonna withhold on commenting on really where it lands. I can say that my intent stepping in was to make it as scary as possible, partly because I know how to do that, and also because when you’re the only human surrounded by a bunch of supernatural creatures, that’s gotta be absolutely unnerving.”
Doubling down on the horror aspect of Van Helsing will certainly distinguish Universal’s redo from not only Syfy’s live-action TV series, but the 2004 feature film that starred Logan‘s Hugh Jackman as the iconic vampire hunter. Elsewhere on the monster slate at Universal are The Wolf Man and Bride of Frankenstein, the latter of which recently tapped David Koepp to hash out a script.
