Anderson Discusses Castlevania
Will Simon Belmont "whip it good?" How much involvement will Konami have? Answers within.
by Chris Carle

June 29, 2006 - Paul W.S. Anderson has made a career of transmuting the world of videogames to the silver screen. His resume includes Mortal Kombat and the Resident Evil films, and he's currently working on adaptations of Castlevania and the Atari hit Driver. In short, he is the perfect keynote speaker for a conference entitled the "Hollywood and Video Games Summit." We caught up with him at this event recently and asked him about the upcoming Castlevania film.

"It's going to explain how the Belmont clan and Dracula first come into contact, so in a way, it's going to be a genesis story of the clash between the Belmonts and Dracula," Anderson explained. "It's going to span the ages as well, which is one of the fun things about the games. There are Castlevania games in the 1500s, there are Castlevania games in the Second World War, there are Castlevania in the future, and we're going to take the same kind of approach. It's going to be a very mythic story spanning hundreds of years, but the key characters are going to be Dracula and Simon Belmont. And the whip is going to be intact, although there'll be lots of other weaponry as well."

When asked what aspects of the game he would retain, Anderson answered, "I was a big fan of Castlevania originally as a 2D game. I think it's had a very patchy transition into 3D, although the last two 3D games have been pretty damn good. What I particularly liked about the last two games has been the artwork that's accompanied them. I think it's got a very lush, Romantic, gothic look to it, and that's very much going to be the look of the movie. And also, the music is excellent. I think that's a very strong aspect of the videogames, and that's something we're very keen [on]."

Fans of the game may wonder how much input Konami, the game maker, will have in the production. Addressing this question, Anderson responded, "Whenever I get involved in a videogame adaptation, I sit down with the people that created it, and we sat down and had a very big meeting with Konami, and I got complimented on my use of chopsticks, so I got respect. We talked about the things we wanted to keep intact. Very much, it was the artwork and it was the music, so if we can use the same composer, I think we will try to."

Anderson is currently in the middle of production on Resident Evil: Extinction, and then will turn his attentions to Castlevania. For more information on the film as it develops, keep your browser pointed to IGN FilmForce.

I am not sure if I am happy with the result though, considering both RE films were fun to watch, they had nothing to do with the games, as in the story of the films had no effect on the story.

I just hope it is on the same level as the story is and doesn't create something that did not happen in the timeline.

Hopefull he will try to cast Castlevania-like looking characters, and the music would be kickass if they use the original composer.

Each new game creates a new storyline on the timeline, so why can't the movie?

Blasphemy the RE movies are pure B movie magic. I own the special editions of both.

Well stay far away from this one Voy, because it's not going to be any different than the RE films.

Pes, I'm not defending Street Fighter here ( I'll even admit it sucks, shocking I know. ) but what part of Street Fighters universe screams " Hey we can make a 90 minute script out of the material in a fighting game " To you?

I think that Anderson will make a visually comparable movie, capturing the look of the game series and working with some of the storyline/timeline that has been presented to us over the years... But outside of that I don't think we're going to see much in common with the game series.

Personally that doesn't bother me, but if you REALLY are looking forward to an exact translation of Castlevania as in we're going to remake a game into a movie like most gamers always hope for, it's not going to happen. It never will.

For many who grew up in the 1980's, the video game Castlevania was a staple for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Many of us remember the classic storyline Simon Belmont, of the Belmont family of vampire hunters, who the lone defenders against the vampire Dracula, who would rise every hundred years, with various creatures of the undead and demonic, to wreak havoc on the poor countryfolk.

Most of the time video games need some sort of adaptation to reach the big screen and maintain some form of realism so that the storyline is believable in the real world. Castlevania is not really one of those games. The story is simple enough, yet still compelling that it would do quite well as a movie. Yet, for reasons unknown, Paul W. S. Anderson has taken it upon himself to completely rewrite the Castlevania mythos.

Essentially, instead of telling the aforementioned tale of Belmonts protecting the people from Dracula's rise, we're told a story that is taken virtually verbatim from the pages of Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula. The story begins with World War II, and some German soldiers taking refuge within the walls of the castle, only to be offed by "unseen" forces, followed by a flashback to the 1500's, where we learn that the two last survivors of the family Belmont, Christopher and Simon, are knights sworn to avenge the deaths of their parents by Turk invaders. Their caravan ends up being attacked by ravenous wolves, led by Dracula in wolf form, and of course, Christopher gets bitten.

Eventually the survivors of the attack end up at the castle and are invited to stay by, you guessed it, Dracul'a (don't ask why the apostrophe, but apparently that's what they're doing), who claims to be none other than the decendant of Vlad the Impaler, who renounced God after offing the Turk invaders and became a vampire. His wife was murdered by the King of Romania, and so Vlad became a vampire thinking he could wait long enough for her to return...so of course, one of the survivors of the caravan attack happens to bear a striking resemblence to ol' Drac's wife. It's really amazing how much this script appears to "borrow" from Coppola's Dracula.

Worse still, everything that made Castlevania what it was is gone. Simon has no idea who Dracula...er, Dracul'a is, and during their climactic battle both Drac and Simon die, and the supposed wife reincarnate survives a bite, developing vampiric powers, and now waits for Simon to return in modern day New York.

But the most horrible part? The morningstar whip that was a staple of the series? GONE. They've got Simon using a SWORD. If that's not the lamest thing ever, I don't know what is. Simon Belmont uses a WHIP. Period. That's part of what made the game different, and should be an integral part of the movie. Do I sound like a fanboy right now? YES. I don't care. Anyone who played the game knows this, and who are the people who would see the movie? Fans of the game!!