Nicolas Cage Will Take a Bite Out of the Box Office When ‘Renfield’ Hits Theaters in April 2023
Get your garlic and holy water ready: Nicolas Cage, vampire, is coming.
Universal announced Friday that they are releasing the next movie in their Dark Universe monster movie series series, Renfield, in April of 2023. Cage will star as Dracula alongside Nicholas Hoult as the title character, and Awkwafina stars as Rebecca Quincy, a traffic cop who catches Renfield’s fancy.
In this modern take on the classic monster tale, the bug-eating Renfield (Hoult), is the loyal but tortured aide to his narcissistic boss, Dracula (Cage). Renfield is forced to procure his master’s meals and perform every debauched task asked of him. After centuries of servitude, however, Renfield decides to look for life and love outside of Castle Dracula, if he can escape the clutches of his evil boss.
Renfield first appeared in Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula, as he was an asylum patient who believed drinking blood would make him immortal. He becomes Dracula’s servant in the hopes of attaining immortality.
Ben Schwartz, Adrian Martinez, Shohreh Aghdashloo and Bess Rouss also star in the movie, which has been described as a “modern-day adventure story that is comedic in tone.”
The movie is opening up against another genre film, Sony’s 65, starring Adam Driver as an astronaut.
Renfield is directed by Chris McKay (The Tomorrow War) from a screenplay by Ryan Ridley (Rick and Morty), based on an original idea by The Walking Dead and Invincible creator Robert Kirkman.
This movie is part of Universal’s Dark Universe series, which reboots some of their classic monster movie titles. Previous movies in the series include The Mummy starring Tom Cruise, and The Invisible Man with Elisabeth Moss. Also in development are movies like Dark Army from director Paul Feig and The Invisible Woman, starring Elizabeth Banks.