It was a rumor for the longest time, but Australian actor Sam Worthington is now confirmed to lead the film Dracula: Year Zero for Dark City and Knowing director Alex Proyas. Also in the works for Worthington are sequels to Avatar and Clash of the Titans.
“Year Zero” producer Mike de Luca had this to say to Encore about the film:
"These writers came up with the ingenious - what I think is ingenious - approach combining historical Dracula with ‘Bram Stoker's Dracula.’ I think vampires are endlessly appropriate candidates for reinvention because there's something in the DNA in that mythology that appeals to every generation. Every generation owns their own version of the vampire myth."
It’s notable that Worthington is more or less an A-list actor now thanks to his role in Avatar, but is this really the best casting decision that could be made? Dracula is a character that many know to have a very distinct accent, and while Worthington is fully capable of reactive acting and expressing emotion, creating a more sinister character with an accent is not on his resume. No doubt that many viewers will have a concept of Dracula in their head of what the storied character should be like and if Worthington can't assume most of those concepts, “Year Zero” will end up being a zero.
