Castlevania to be a feature film

Sylvain White will direct Castlevania, a live-action adaptation of the Konami vampire videogame. It will be co-produced by Rogue Pictures and Crystal Sky Entertainment.

The movie is expected to film this autumn in South Africa and Romania, and to hit the theaters late next year.

White also has deals to develop Static at Columbia Pictures and the Frank Miller graphic novel Ronin at Warner Brothers, but Castlevania will be the next film he directs.

The movie is written by Paul W.S. Anderson (who wrote Alien vs. Predator). The story begins as "a Transylvanian knight leads his men into a gothic castle to seek refuge from the Turkish army. The knights soon discover the castle is controlled by the original vampire."

According to Variety, White "grew up playing the game in the early 1990s, and was attracted to the chance to make a vampire film. The script sets up a generational clash between Vlad the Impaler and the Belmont family, a clan that unleashed the original vampire and battles to defeat him."

"Most of the vampire films have been present or set in the future, from Blade to Underworld, and I was attracted by the chance to make a dark, epic period movie that almost has an anime feel to it," White said.