All You Need to Know About Meg 2: The Trench

 Again, something is hiding in the deep parts of the ocean. Warner Bros. Pictures will release The Meg 2: The Trench in 2020. It is the follow-up to the movie The Meg, which came out in 2018.

In the first movie, a group of scientists finds out that the name-giving prehistoric megalodon really existed. The movie The Meg was based on the book Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Alten. Because the movie was so well-liked, it made more than $530 million around the world. If the money made at the box office is any indication, Warner Bros. Pictures will want to make a sequel, which could be the start of a new sci-fi/horror series.

Again, something is hiding in the deep parts of the ocean. Warner Bros. Pictures will release The Meg 2: The Trench in 2020. It is the follow-up to the movie The Meg, which came out in 2018.

In the first movie, a group of scientists finds out that the name-giving prehistoric megalodon really existed. The movie The Meg was based on the book Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Alten. Because the movie was so well-liked, it made more than $530 million around the world. If the money made at the box office is any indication, Warner Bros. Pictures will want to make a sequel, which could be the start of a new sci-fi/horror series.

What do we know about The Trench, the follow-up to The Meg that will come out in 2019? How much will the story from the first game carry over, and what new things can we look forward to? Who from the first movie is coming back, and who else might we see? When does the movie come out, and where can we see it? What else do you want people to know about The Meg 2: The Trench before they watch it?

Brief Information About The Meg 2

Name of Series: The Meg

Number of Series: 1

Director: Ben Wheatley

Producers: Belle Avery, Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, Ken Atchity and Chi-Li Wong

Main Character: Jason Statham

The Meg 2 Release Date

I think we should jump right into the release date. Warner Bros. Pictures has scheduled an August 4, 2023 release date for Meg 2: The Trench in the United States. The movie will be out in 2023 as planned, and filming has already begun.

A few months ago, Statham expressed his eagerness to get back into the water.

Sure, we’ll begin filming in January. The film was directed by Ben Wheatley. I look forward to collaborating with him. Honestly, I can’t wait to start going. We’ve been sitting around for a while, waiting for the right script and the right director to show up, and now we finally have everything we need.

They’ve finally reached their final resting place in neat piles. [Ben is] fantastic. Already, we have an excellent acronym in place. I enjoy his films and consider him a skilled director, so I imagine we would get along famously. I believe we have a fantastic opportunity to create something worthwhile.

In his September 2020 email, Steve Alten revealed that he had written the script for Meg 2, named The Trench, and that the studios were interested in it because of its “dark” nature and the prospect of an R-rating (as opposed to the first film’s PG-13).

Production started in full swing at Warner Bros. Location: Leavesden, February 4, 2022, Studio.

The Meg 2 Trailer

A trailer is a long way off when you consider that storyboarding is still in its early stages. Continue reading for the most recent details regarding The Meg 2 as they become available, though. The meg 1 trailer, on the other hand, is posted below.

The Meg 2 Cast

The break before the great group performance. Meg 2: The cast roster for The Trench has already been made public. In the past few months, several new cast members have been recruited for the future film; the following list includes those individuals.

Jason Statham as Jonas TaylorPage

Kennedy as DJ

Cliff Curtis as James ‘Mac’ Mackreides

Shuya Cai as Meiying

Wu Jing

Sienna Guillory

Sergio Peris-Mencheta

Skyler Samuels

The Meg 2 Plot

Man vs. shark rematch This time, Jonas and his team discover evidence that the Megalodon, which has been breeding in the Trench for millions of years, is learning how to navigate the cooler waters above the trench and make its way to the California coast.

In order to stop the destruction along the west coast, Jonas must return to the ocean’s depths and fight the planet’s largest predator once more.

Read more: 

About The Meg

The Meg made $145.4 million in the U.S. and Canada and $384.8 million in other countries. It made a total of $530.2 million worldwide, even though it cost between $130 and 178 million to make.

At first, it was thought that it would make between $20 and $22 million in its first weekend in 4,118 theatres in the U.S. and Canada.

Analysts thought the movie would do better than the low $20 million predictions because it made $4 million on Thursday night. Estimates for the weekend went up to $40 million after the first day, when it earned $16.5 million.

It went on to open with $45.4 million, which was more than any other movie and the best opening of Statham’s and Turteltaub’s careers. It made $21.5 million in its second weekend and $13 million in its third. Both times, Crazy Rich Asians made more money than it did, so it came in second.

The movie opened in 96 other countries and territories to the tune of $101.5 million worldwide opening of $146.9 million. In China, the film’s co-producer made $50.3 million from 12,650 screens in the first weekend and was ranked #3. Mexico ($6.2 million), Russia ($5 million), the U.K. ($4.4 million), Spain ($2.4 million), and the Philippines ($2 million) also had very successful openings. 

The Meg is a science fiction action movie that came out in 2018. It was directed by Jon Turteltaub and written by Dean Georgaris, Jon Hoeber, and Erich Hoeber. It was loosely based on Steve Alten’s 1997 book Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror. Jason Statham, Li Bingbing, Rainn Wilson, Ruby Rose, Winston Chao, and Cliff Curtis all have roles in the movie.

A group of scientists on a rescue mission on the floor of the Pacific Ocean runs into a 75-foot-long (23-m) megalodon shark. Walt Disney Studios bought the rights to turn the book into a movie in the 1990s, but the project took years to get off the ground. In the end, Warner Bros.

Pictures bought the rights, and the movie got the go-ahead in 2013. In September 2014, Turteltaub and most of the cast signed on. Filming started in New Zealand and Sanya, China, and ended in January 2016. Both the United States and China made the movie.

The Plot of The Meg Movie

Jonas Taylor, a rescue diver, is trying to save the crew of a damaged nuclear submarine when he sees the hull being hit by something he doesn’t know. Taylor has to run away because two of his crew members are stuck in the broken submarine. He knows that if he tries to save them, everyone he has already saved will die.

A fellow survivor, Dr. Heller, doesn’t believe what he says because he thinks Taylor got drunk and scared because of the pressure.

Five years later, billionaire Jack Morris meets Dr. Minway Zhang at a place called Mana One, an underwater research facility. Zhang and his oceanographer daughter Suyin are in charge of a mission to find the deepest part of the Mariana Trench, which is hidden by a thermocline of hydrogen sulfide.

Lori, Taylor’s ex-wife, and the scientists Toshi and “The Wall” drive the mission submersible. They find a lot of plants and animals that they have never seen before below the thermocline. However, when a large, unknown creature attacks the submersible, it loses contact with Mana One.

James “Mac” Mackreides, the operations manager for Mana One and an old friend of Taylor’s, suggests sending Taylor down to try to save people. Zhang and Mac go to Thailand to find Taylor, even though Heller, who is now part of the Mana One crew, is against it.

At first, he is skeptical but changes his mind after listening to a recording of the conversation between Lori, her crew, and Mana One. Suyin tries to save them while they are away, but a giant squid attacks her. Before the squid could crush her submarine, a giant shark killed it.

Taylor breaks through the thermocline and swims to the sunken submersible because he promised to help. When the shark returns and attacks the submersible before everyone has left, Toshi gives his life so the others can escape.

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The 10 Scariest Sea Monsters in Cinema

 The Best Monster Movies Of The 21st Century So Far

Thalassophobia is the fear of large bodies of water, along with what horrors they may hold, and it is a phobia that cinema has capitalized on since its early days. Ever since people have gone out on the ocean, legends have arisen to explain their natural fear of it. The majority of these result in terrifying sea monsters which, as storytelling progressed, made their way onto the big screen.

You’re Gonna Need A MUCH Bigger Boat

For millions of years, the Megalodon survived at the bottom of Mariana’s Trench in a biome separated by a thick layer of hydrogen sulfide. When a group of researchers breaches the layer however, the enormous beast is released and sets off to feed. 

Understandably, shark movies have somewhat of a bad rap. However, much like the Mosasaurus from Jurassic World, the giant shark in The Meg proves that terrifying sea monsters aren’t only found in fiction. Of course, the difference is that in this movie, the legendary creature has survived to this day. With the majority of our oceans being unexplored, it isn’t totally impossible, which is even more frightening.

Read more: https://collider.com/scariest-sea-monsters-in-cinema/

Director Ben Wheatley says that The Meg 2 might live up to its title in more ways than one.

The Meg 2 is a thing. Three years after the release of the original The Meg, which swallowed up an astonishing $530 million worldwide at the box office, director Ben Wheatley — fresh off his eerie new horror film In The Earth — is deep in pre-production on a sequel to the 2018 thriller that pitted puny humans against a couple of oversized prehistoric sharks.

“I’m storyboarding at the moment on Meg 2,” Wheatley says when we catch up with him for the release of In The Earth. “It’s been going on for four months, five months. It’s my happy place, I love storyboarding. So yeah, I’m cutting storyboards and watching animatics, and slowly constructing the movie. It’s really exciting. It’s just action on a massive, massive scale.”

The first film, based on the popular 1997 novel Meg by Steve Alten, reached the screen in 2018 after more than two decades of development. The property bounced from Disney to New Line Cinema, to Warner Bros., with directors like Jan de Bont (Speed) and Eli Roth (Hostel) attached at various points. Cameras finally rolled in 2016 with Jon Turteltaub (National Treasure) directing from a script by Dean Georgaris and Jon and Erich Hoeber.

The latter pair have apparently returned to pen the sequel, which Wheatley says he has had no hand in writing: “No, the script is by the Hoeber brothers that wrote the first script, so it’s kind of a continuation on from that story.”

As for whether the cast members who survived the first film — which included British action star Jason Statham, Chinese actress Li Bingbing and a handful of others — will also encore in the follow-up, Wheatley is somewhat cagier, although he does drop a tantalizing hint about the title menace. “I don’t think I can say at the moment what’s going on, the ins and outs of it,” he intones. “But guaranteed, there will be a Megalodon — maybe more than one.”

While the prospect of even more Megalodons wreaking havoc in the sequel, which is provisionally called The Meg 2: The Trench, is an exciting one, it’s all but guaranteed that Statham, who is said to be “creatively involved” with the project, will be there punching them as well.

Alten’s novel was altered significantly for the screen, becoming less of a grisly horror shocker and more of a Statham action joint. It’s worth noting that Alten’s own sequel to his novel Meg was also called The Trench, although we don’t expect a faithful adaptation this time either.

The first film’s self-awareness and somewhat jokey tone, coupled with Statham’s own dryly humorous charisma, turned The Meg into a relative rarity: a monster movie that was both fun and not afraid to poke fun at itself. That was enough to lure in those massive audiences and set the wheels of a sequel in motion.

Although Wheatley’s last outing was Netflix’s glossy adaptation of the Daphne du Maurier novel Rebecca — a bold choice since it was previously filmed by Alfred Hitchcock — he’s perhaps best known for his razor-sharp combinations of horror, crime and satire in films like Kill List, Sightseers and Free Fire. If he manages to retain the tone set by the first Meg while adding his personal touch to the proceedings, this could end up being a sequel with, dare we say it, real teeth.

As for going from the high-end esthetics of Rebecca to the guerilla filmmaking of In The Earth (more on that to come) to the presumably explosive, effects-driven action of The Meg 2, Wheatley puts it simply: “I think that’s always the hope, that they’re different [from each other]. You don’t want to end up making the same thing again and again.”


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Written by

Don Kaye | @donkaye

Don Kaye is an entertainment journalist by trade and geek by natural design. Born in New York City, currently ensconced in Los Angeles, his earliest childhood memory is…

The Meg 2 director Ben Wheatley teases what to expect from the sequel

From Kill List to Sightseers to A Field in England to Rebecca, filmmaker Ben Wheatley has delivered audiences a variety of experiences, with one constant component being an intimate experience that leans heavily into characters, which has fans wondering what to expect from his upcoming sequel to The Meg. The Jason Statham-starring film had a reported budget between $130 and $180 million, with even the low end of those estimates dwarfing the budgets of any of Wheatley's previous films. Wheatley recently shared his enthusiasm for the upcoming sequel and how, first and foremost, his plans are to honor the scope of the titular beast.

"A lot of it is respecting The Meg, and trying to make sure it's a great Meg film," Wheatley shared with ComicBook.com about the new film. "And as you can see from the movies I've made, they're not necessarily, it's not ... when you go and do Doctor Who, I don't completely change it because I wanted to do it. I didn't want to necessarily make it something completely different that nobody recognized, you know? So there's that element of back and forth."

He continued, "But it's an opportunity to do action on such an insanely large scale, that it's just unbelievable. From doing Free Fire, which was, I thought, was all my Christmases came at once in terms of action, this is just unbelievable. And just doing the storyboards for it, just thinking and going, 'Oh,' it's just ... I feel a heavy responsibility for it, to make sure that it kind of delivers on all the, to all the big shark fans out there."

The original film was based on the novel Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror, and focused on a prehistoric megalodon being discovered in the deepest parts of the ocean, who then came to the surface to wreak havoc. The film went on to earn $530.2 million worldwide, with details on the sequel's story being kept under wraps.

As we wait for updates on The Meg sequel, fans can check out Wheatley's latest film, In the Earth.

In the film, "As the world searches for a cure to a disastrous virus, a scientist and park scout venture deep in the forest for a routine equipment run. Through the night, their journey becomes a terrifying voyage through the heart of darkness, the forest coming to life around them."

Read more 

Steve Alten Meg's Writer Explains Where The Meg 2 Could Go

 

The Meg has become a somewhat unlikely global hit, which, of course, creates the inevitable question, could there be a sequel? Well, since The Meg is based on a novel, which itself has several sequels, there's plenty of material to draw from for future Meg movies. The author of the original book, Steve Alten, thinks that there is plenty of stuff in the follow-up books that would make for great follow-up movies. Now that the first movie has introduced the idea of prehistoric creatures being alive today, sequels can have fun with different monsters just the way the books have. According to Alten...

The thing about the book series is, I just finished book 6, Meg: Generation, and each book ups the ante a little bit more. So if the producers, and [producer] Belle Avery especially I know she will follow the sequels. If they follow the sequels then they won't have to reinvent the wheel. Because it takes it to new places and introduces new monsters. A lot of people like dinosaurs, and I did, too, growing up. But the sea creature monsters and dinosaurs are much more fearsome than the land creatures. There's the T-Rex, but that is pretty much all you really have on the land. In the ocean you have some amazing sea creatures, and I'd love to see them all brought back to life.

The Meg is the most recent in a film tradition of giant monster movies, and when previous films in the genre became successful sequels frequently happened. When they did, there were some obvious ways for them to work. One was to create more monsters, the other was to create bigger monsters. The book sequels to The Meg do both of these things and Steve Alten tells Metro there's no reason the movies can't follow suit.

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Dracula Lives

Arts, Briefly
Dracula Lives
Compiled by DAVE ITZKOFF




Count Dracula, the great-granddaddy of vampires, is poised for a comeback (not counting any previous incarnations in which he was portrayed by Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, George Hamilton or Udo Kier). That Transylvanian bloodsucker will return in a new novel whose authors include the great-grandnephew of Bram Stoker, the author of the original “Dracula,” the novel’s publisher announced. The new book, “Dracula: The Un-Dead,” by Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt, a Dracula historian, was acquired for United States publication by Dutton Books. It is scheduled for an October 2009 release and will be the first Dracula project authorized by the Stoker estate since the 1931 film that starred Lugosi. Film rights for “Dracula: The Un-Dead” were also acquired by a group of producers that includes Jan de Bont, the director of “Speed” and “Twister.”

Stoker's blood relative to bring Dracula back from the undead

The Guardian

Abraham van Helsing and his intrepid band of vampire hunters may have disposed of Bram Stoker's creation Dracula more than a century ago, but a sequel to the novel co-authored by Stoker's great-grand-nephew will see them under attack from the undead once again, it was announced yesterday.















Bela Lugosi in Dracula (1931)

Dacre Stoker, who formerly coached the Canadian Olympic pentathlon team and now lives in the US, delved into his ancestor's handwritten notes on the original Dracula novel to pen his sequel, Dracula: The Un-Dead - the original name of Dracula before an editor changed the title.

The new book - the first Dracula story to be fully authorised by the Stoker family since the 1931 film starring Béla Lugosi - has provoked a storm in the publishing world, selling for more than $1m (£575,000) to Dutton US, HarperCollins UK and Penguin Canada.

Dacre Stoker wrote the novel with the screenwriter Ian Holt, and a movie is also planned.

The new novel, which is due to be published next October, draws on excised characters and plot lines that were cut from Stoker's original, first published 111 years ago.

In the new book, set in London in 1912, Quincey, the son of Stoker's hero, Jonathan Harker, has become involved in a troubled theatre production of Dracula, directed and produced by Bram Stoker himself. The play plunges Quincey into the world of his parents' terrible secrets.

Stoker said that he had not got around to reading his great-grand-uncle's novel until he went to college. "Word got out about my family connection to the old vamp and I grew tired of being unable to answer people's questions. So I chose to finally break down and read the novel for a research paper on Bram and his possible motivations to write the story," he said.

"I had seen so many film versions of Dracula and was terribly surprised that very few of the films had any resemblance to Bram's original novel. Because the novel was so good and had stood up so well over the years, I found it exceedingly sad that all of the trash Hollywood had put out monumentally sullied Bram's and my family's literary legacy."

Stoker later met Holt and the pair decided to work together to resurrect Bram Stoker's original themes and characters. "Our intent is to give both Bram and Dracula back their dignity," Stoker said.

Bram Stoker's original Dracula has never been out of print since it was published in 1897.

"Dracula" Sequel Shoots Next Year

By Garth Franklin

"The Un-Dead", the official sequel to Bram Stoker's classic novel "Dracula", has sold English publishing rights to an alliance of Dutton U.S., Harper U.K. and Penguin-Canada.

Bram Stoker's great-grandnephew and blood descendant, Dacre Stoker, along with award-winning Dracula documentarian and historian Ian Holt accessed Bram Stoker's hand-written notes for his novel. The story this time around is set in 1912 London and has someone stalking the heroes who defeated the vampire Dracula a quarter-century ago.

The book, due for release in October 2009, also includes "characters and plot threads that had been excised by the publisher from the original printing over a century ago." It is the first Dracula story to enjoy the full support of the Stoker clan since the original 1931 movie starring Bela Lugosi.

Jan de Bont, Ken Atchity, Chi-Li Wong, and Michael T. Kuciak will produce the film adaptation which Holt co-writing the script with Alexander Galant. The pair have apparently finished the script and shooting is slated to begin next June.

Arrow In The Head/Joblo -- LOVES The Un-Dead!!!

Dracula: Undead Oct. 4, 2008
[Source] by: Jared Pacheco

You know that book with that story about that vampire guy? His name is Dracula and supposedly he's some big deal... Alright, I'm talking about the vampire grandaddy himself, Bram Stoker's legendary novel DRACULA. Apparently we've got a sequel heading our way!

I'm not kidding you. We got a press release today from AEI announcing the purchase of DRACULA: THE-UNDEAD. Why is this a big deal? Well this novel comes from award winning Dracula documentarian Ian Holt and Dacre Stoker, who just so happens to be the great-grandnephew of one Bram Stoker.

I'm sorry, but I found that a bit mindblowing. We're talking about a book that's over a century old! You know how long a century is? A pretty long time! Laura Shin, who's the senior editor of one of the buyees, had the following to say:

"I was thrilled by this page-turning story and loved spending time with those greatcharacters --Stoker and Holt did a fantastic job melding the old with the new, and I found the work to be a virtually seamless continuation of the original. The story has all the hallmarks of a historical novel, but with a modern sensibility that gives it wide-spread appeal."

Dutton U.S., Harper U.K., and Shin's Penguin-Canada are the groups that were part of the deal. The author's even used Bram Stoker's hand-written notes for THE-UNDEAD. That's pretty intriguing right? The book is set to hit shelves October 2009. Stoker had the following to say: "Our story includes characters and plot threads that had been excised by the publisher from the original
printing over a century ago."


So is that it? Hell no! With something this big you know we're not done yet! There will also be a DRACULA: THE-UNDEAD film in the works, of course! Holt penned the script alongside Alexander Grant. AEI's Ken Atchity, Chi-Li Wong, Michael T. Kuciak and Blue Tulip's Jan de Bont are all producing. They're hoping to get cameras rolling around June 2009.


Obviously this is some pretty huge news so we'll be keeping a close eye on this one and fill you in on any updates along the way.

2009 is the Year for Dracula: The Un-Dead

Source:AEI
October 3, 2008


LONDON, 1912: Someone is stalking the brave band of heroes who had defeated the vampire Dracula a quarter-century ago.

Bram Stoker's great-grandnephew and blood descendant, Dacre Stoker, and award-winning Dracula documentarian and historian Ian Holt have sold North American-English publishing rights of the Stoker-family-authorized sequel to Bram's classic novel "Dracula" to an alliance of Dutton U.S. (Brian Tart), Harper U.K. (Jane Johnson) and Penguin-Canada (Laura Shin).

The novel will appear in October 2009.

Laura Shin, senior editor of Penguin-Canada, who signed up for two additional sequels, said, "I was thrilled by this page-turning story and loved spending time with those great characters-Stoker and Holt did a fantastic job melding the old with the new, and I found the work to be a virtually seamless continuation of the original. The story has all the hallmarks of a historical novel, but with a modern sensibility that gives it wide-spread appeal."

Dutton and Harper signed a single novel deal. Although other precedent-setting foreign deals are already closed from preempts, Baror is planning to sign the bulk of world territories at the upcoming Frankfurt Book Fair.

Using Stoker family connections, the writers were able to access Bram Stoker's hand-written notes for his novel - which, before an editor changed the title, was to have been called "The Un-Dead."

"Our story," Stoker said, "includes characters and plot threads that had been excised by the publisher from the original printing over a century ago."

"The Un-Dead" is the first Dracula story to enjoy the full support of the Stoker clan since the original 1931 movie starring Bela Lugosi. Lugosi's appearance in Hamilton Deane's and John Balderston's stage production of the story on Broadway in New York, fifteen years after Bram Stoker's death in 1927, sparked the original novel's bestselling popularity. It has never been out of print since.

AEI's Ken Atchity, Chi-Li Wong, and Michael T. Kuciak (Life or Something Like It, Joe Somebody) will produce the film adaptation with Blue Tulip's Jan de Bont (Speed), and are expecting to see it go before the cameras in June '09.

The script has been completed by Ian Holt with the story co-written by Alexander Galant, who are both managed by AEI and agented by Ron Gwiazda and Amy Wagner at Abrams Artists.

Dracula Sequel Set for 2009!

LONDON, 1912: Someone is stalking the brave band of heroes who had defeated the vampire Dracula a quarter-century ago.

Bram Stoker's great-grandnephew and blood descendant, Dacre Stoker, and award-winning Dracula documentarian and historian Ian Holt have sold North American-English publishing rights of the Stoker-family-authorized sequel to Bram's classic novel for well over mid - seven figures U.S. to an alliance of Dutton U.S. (Brian Tart), Harper U.K. (Jane Johnson), and Penguin-Canada (Laura Shin) brokered by Danny Baror of Baror International and Ken Atchity, of Atchity Entertainment International, the literary manager representing Stoker and Holt. The novel will appear in October 2009.

Laura Shin, senior editor of Penguin-Canada, who signed up for two additional sequels, said,

"I was thrilled by this page-turning story and loved spending time with those great characters-Stoker and Holt did a fantastic job melding the old with the new, and I found the work to be a virtually seamless continuation of the original. The story has all the hallmarks of a historical novel, but with a modern sensibility that gives it wide-spread appeal."

Dutton and Harper signed a single novel deal. Although other precedent-setting foreign deals are already closed from preempts, Baror is planning to sign the bulk of world territories at the upcoming Frankfurt Book Fair.

Using Stoker family connections, the writers were able to access Bram Stoker's hand-written notes for his novel - which, before an editor changed the title, was to have been called "The Un-Dead."

"Our story," Stoker said, "includes characters and plot threads that had been excised by the publisher from the original printing over a century ago."

Dracula is one of the most recognized fictitious characters in the world, having spawned dozens of books and movies; the original novel, according to historians’ best estimates, has sold millions of copies-second only to the Bible, available in over fifty languages--and generated hundreds of millions of dollars. “The Un-Dead” is the first Dracula story to enjoy the full support of the Stoker clan since the original 1931 movie starring Bela Lugosi. Lugosi's appearance in Hamilton Deane’s and John Balderston's stage production of the story on Broadway in New York, fifteen years after Bram Stoker's death in 1927, sparked the original novel's bestselling popularity. It has never been out of print since.

AEI's Ken Atchity, Chi-Li Wong, and Michael T. Kuciak (Life or Something Like It, Joe Somebody, Ripley's Believe It or Not) will produce the film with Blue Tulip's Jan de Bont (Twister, Speed, Minority Report), and are expecting to see it go before the cameras in June '09. The script has been completed by Ian Holt with the story co-written by Alexander Galant, who are both managed by AEI and agented by Ron Gwiazda and Amy Wagner at Abrams Artists.

Both Stoker and Galant are Canadian, though Stoker now lives in the U.S. He was the Canadian Modern Pentathlon Coach from 1983-1987 and then Canadian Olympic Modern Pentathlon Coach at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. Holt, who has visited Dracula's Castle in Transylvania and is a member of The Transylvanian Society of Dracula, lives in Long Island, New York.

Official Dracula Sequel Booked and Filmed for 2009!

Doing Bram proud? Sure, we've seen many Dracula films and books over the years, but not many of them got the Stoker seal of approval ... until now.

According to STYD and AEI, Dacre Stoker, the great-grandnephew of Bram, has teamed with historian Ian Holt to bring to fruition the first family-backed use of Bram's classic vampire tale since Bela Lugosi donned the cape and fangs in the 1931 film and the stage production years later. This new venture will be appearing in both book and movie form starting next year!

Titled The Un-Dead, the story picks in up 1912, 25 years after Dracula's death. Someone or something is tracking down those who put an end to the bloodsucker's life. According to Dacre, this new work was crafted thanks to Bram's handwritten notes and "includes characters and plot threads that had been excised by the publisher from the original printing over a century ago.

Production of the adaptation is set to roll in June of 2009 with the book itself creeping into stores months afterwards in October.

- Syxx

New Authorized 'Dracula' Sequel Coming Soon

Friday, October 3, 2008

By: MrDisgusting

This morning we received a pretty damn confusing press release that sounds exciting. Bram Stoker's great-grandnephew and blood descendant, Dacre Stoker, and award-winning Dracula documentarian and historian Ian Holt have sold North American-English publishing rights of the Stoker-family-authorized sequel to Bram's classic novel DRACULA: THE-UNDEAD for well over mid - seven figures. According to the release, new novels are on the way, along with a feature film. Read on and see if you can decipher what's going on with the film.

LONDON, 1912: Someone is stalking the brave band of heroes who had defeated the vampire Dracula a quarter-century ago.

Bram Stoker's great-grandnephew and blood descendant, Dacre Stoker, and award-winning Dracula documentarian and historian Ian Holt have sold North American-English publishing rights of the Stoker-family-authorized sequel to Bram's classic novel for well over mid - seven figures U.S. to an alliance of Dutton U.S. (Brian Tart), Harper U.K. (Jane Johnson), and Penguin-Canada (Laura Shin) brokered by Danny Baror of Baror International and Ken Atchity, of Atchity Entertainment International, the literary manager representing Stoker and Holt. The novel will appear in October 2009.

Laura Shin, senior editor of Penguin-Canada, who signed up for two additional sequels, said, "I was thrilled by this page-turning story and loved spending time with those great characters-Stoker and Holt did a fantastic job melding the old with the new, and I found the work to be a virtually seamless continuation of the original. The story has all the hallmarks of a historical novel, but with a modern sensibility that gives it wide-spread appeal." Dutton and Harper signed a single novel deal. Although other precedent-setting foreign deals are already closed from preempts, Baror is planning to sign the bulk of world territories at the upcoming Frankfurt Book Fair.

Using Stoker family connections, the writers were able to access Bram Stoker's hand-written notes for his novel - which, before an editor changed the title, was to have been called "The Un-Dead."

"Our story," Stoker said, "includes characters and plot threads that had been excised by the publisher from the original printing over a century ago." Dracula is one of the most recognized fictitious characters in the world, having spawned dozens of books and movies; the original novel, according to historians’ best estimates, has sold millions of copies-second only to the Bible, available in over fifty languages--and generated hundreds of millions of dollars. “The Un-Dead” is the first Dracula story to enjoy the full support of the Stoker clan since the original 1931 movie starring Bela Lugosi. Lugosi's appearance in Hamilton Deane’s and John Balderston's stage production of the story on Broadway in New York, fifteen years after Bram Stoker's death in 1927, sparked the original novel's bestselling popularity. It has never been out of print since.

AEI's Ken Atchity, Chi-Li Wong, and Michael T. Kuciak ("Life or Something Like It," "Joe Somebody," "Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not!") will produce the film with Blue Tulip's Jan de Bont ("Twister," "Speed," "Minority Report"), and are expecting to see it go before the cameras in June '09. The script has been completed by Ian Holt with the story co-written by Alexander Galant, who are both managed by AEI and agented by Ron Gwiazda and Amy Wagner at Abrams Artists.

Both Stoker and Galant are Canadian, though Stoker now lives in the U.S. He was the Canadian Modern Pentathlon Coach from 1983-1987 and then Canadian Olympic Modern Pentathlon Coach at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. Holt, who has visited Dracula's Castle in Transylvania and is a member of The Transylvanian Society of Dracula, lives in Long Island, New York.

Source: AEI

Sequel to Bram Stoker's Dracula Official - The Un-Dead

October 3, 2008
Source: STYD
by Kevin Powers


Spoilers of the genre aside (ahem, Twilight) I love just about anything having to do with vampires. Alan Ball's "True Blood" on HBO, for instance, is shaping up to be a wonderful modern take on the fanged nightcrawlers. And I can even enjoy the likes of 30 Days of Night. So you can imagine my delight that news from STYD that a sequel and film adaptation to the iconic "Dracula" story by Bram Stoker is in the works, titled The Un-Dead. I know we all think sequels can usually be the death of a story, but this doesn't sound bad at all. Apparently Stoker's great-grandnephew, Dacre Stoker and "award-winning Dracula documentarian and historian," Ian Holt, have sold the North American rights to the follow-up novel. The book is scheduled for an October 2009 release, while the film is expected to start production in June.

Dacre (since it's confusing just to call him Stoker) worked with Holt on the novel, combing through Bram's actual hand-written notes that intended to continue his iconic story. Dacre is quoted as saying, "Our story includes characters and plot threads that had been excised by the publisher from the original printing over a century ago." What's most noteworthy about this project is that it's the first, since the original 1931 film, to receive any sort "official" approval from the Stoker family. It seems fitting, since Dacre is an actual blood-relative of the man who authored the original horror tale in 1897, which, incidentally, has never gone out of print. Hell, you might as well pick up a copy if you haven't ever read it - it's worth it.

As for the actual story, it's anyone's guess. One of the publishers said of the book, "I was thrilled by this page-turning story and loved spending time with those great characters. Stoker and Holt did a fantastic job melding the old with the new, and I found the work to be a virtually seamless continuation of the original. The story has all the hallmarks of a historical novel, but with a modern sensibility that gives it wide-spread appeal." All of that sounds like self-serving spin, but it's all we have to go on at this point in time. As for the film, no director or any other important role has been announced yet; although, we do know that Dacre and Holt did pen the screenplay. There's certainly a lot to be excited and worried about here.

Given Dacre and Holt's proximity to the subject matter, can they actually pull it off?

Undead in Toronto Globe & Mail

DRACULA AUTHOR'S DESCENDANT
JOSH WINGROVE

October 1, 2008

As a child, it was easy for Dacre Stoker to pick a Halloween costume.

Mr. Stoker said he knew he was a blood descendant of Bram Stoker, author of the iconic Dracula, as a boy growing up in Montreal.

"When Halloween time came, it was like, 'you're a Stoker!'" remembers Mr. Stoker, 50, who now lives in South Carolina.

"But that's the one thing about being Canadian. We're a little more humble than our American neighbours. You may be related to one of the greatest writers in history, but you don't make a big deal about it."


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He later confirmed that he was, precisely, the great-grandnephew of Abraham (Bram), and left it at that.

So, it came as a surprise when he got an e-mail from Ian Holt about five years ago. Mr. Holt, a New-York-based Dracula historian, wanted to "resurrect" the classic tale - which has been the subject of dozens of subsequent novels and films, none of which appeared to bear the Stoker name.

So Mr. Holt, 39, recruited the living Mr. Stoker to take part. Today, they have finished The Un-Dead, a 568-page manuscript set to see daylight next fall.

"I got in touch with Dacre and he thought I was this nut job. But after listening to me and discussing my vision of what I had in mind, he got very interested," said Mr. Holt, an actor who originally pitched the idea as a film.

"He came up with the idea that if we really want to honour Bram, we should do it like a novel first. And it took off like a rocket."

The novel is set 25 years after its famous predecessor, and follows the story of Quincey Harker, the son of original characters Jonathan Harker and Mina Murray. It ills in the back stories of the original characters while advancing the story of young Quincey, Mr. Holt said. He refused to go into specifics, saying only that a slew of characters reappear. Mr. Holt and Mr. Stoker have sold the Canadian, British and American publishing rights for several million dollars, their publishers say, and shooting is scheduled to begin on a film adaptation next year.

The Un-Dead has since swept up the lives of Mr. Holt and Mr. Stoker, a former teacher and Canadian Olympic pentathlon coach. He now works as a seminar instructor of, among other things, blood-borne pathogens.

"I've got a fascination with the body, having been a coach and athlete ... the role of getting your blood in really good condition to compete. And here I am with this other side of me," he said in an interview late yesterday evening.

"Yeah, I've got a lot to live up to."