Vampires, it seems, are the new gangsters. Books, movies,
and TV shows centered around the nocturnal bloodsuckers are practically ubiquitous these days, with one project in particular attracting almost frightening levels of interest.
Busily readying a vampire-themed project of his own is Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. While out promoting the Blu-ray release of Hellboy II: The Golden Army last night, Mignola
gave us an update on the movie adaptation of his vampire-themed graphic novel
Baltimore, or the Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire, which David Goyer (The
Unborn) is slated to direct:
"We're taking it in a different direction,"
Mignola, who co-wrote the comic along with Christopher Golden, told us. "The book is very complex and involved and kind of a
story-within-a-story thing, and I think we've come up with a way to streamline
it so that it's filmable.... Right now the ball is in our court to sit down and
write the new version of the screenplay."
Since Baltimore's script hasn't been finalized, a shooting date is still a long ways off. "At this point it's just (about) keeping the
studio interested in it, because it's gone on for a while and we've gone in a
couple of different directions with the screenplay," said Mignola. "I've
never been involved in anything like this. With Hellboy, it was entirely (director
Guillermo) del Toro doing these meetings and stuff.... I've never been in this
place, meeting with studios and meeting with directors and that kind of stuff,
so I have no idea how the hell this kind of thing works."
If Mignola and company do succeed in getting the project off the ground, a suggested first order of business might be to shorten the title, which in its current state is only slightly less cumbersome than The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain.