Just when you think you’ve seen Nicolas Cage play every character imaginable, he goes and gets himself cast as Dracula. The veteran actor has been signed on to play the iconic vampire in Renfield, a new feature in development at Universal Pictures starring Nicholas Hoult as the titular character, a man who serves as the count’s henchman. Chris McKay (The Tomorrow War) directs the movie using a script by Ryan Ridley (Rick and Morty) based on a story by Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead).

A comedy, Renfield is described as a modern-day adventure story based primarily on the character created by Bram Stoker in the original Dracula novel published in 1897. He was conceived as a human patient in a mental asylum who believes eating living creatures will grant him their life-force, a trait Dracula manipulates to get Renfield to do his bidding. Various depictions of Renfield have been featured in different Dracula adaptations, typically as a bumbling sidekick to the evil vampire.

The depictions of Renfield on the screen date back nearly a full century, with Alexander Granach playing him in the 1922 silent film Nosferatu. He is also memorably portrayed by Tom Waits in 1992’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, an adaptation of the original novel which starred Gary Oldman as the count. Peter MacNicol also played a more humorous depiction of Renfield in the comedy Dracula: Dead and Loving It opposite Leslie Nielsen as Dracula. More recently, Samuel Barnett played Renfield in the horror series Penny Dreadful.

Nicholas Hoult, who plays the character in the new Renfield movie, was recently seen in the Taylor Sheridan movie Those Who Wish Me Dead with Angelina Jolie. He’s also known for appearing as Beast in the X-Men franchise with his other movie roles including Clash of the Titans, Warm Bodies, and Mad Max: Fury Road. Hoult is also set to appear in Mark Mylod’s upcoming dark comedy The Menu alongside Anya Taylor-Joy and Ralph Fiennes.

It’s gotten to be a bit of a running joke in Hollywood that Nicolas Cage cannot turn down a role, resulting in some of the strangest characters you could imagine seeing from the actor. This casting as Dracula in Renfield is another interesting choice that stands out right away, but when you consider that this is more comedy than horror, it really sounds like a perfect choice. Cage also comes into this role with some vampire movie experience, having starred as a man who believes he’s turning into a vampire in 1989’s Vampire’s Kiss.

Even if some of his roles are a bit bizarre, they can prove to be pretty effective with viewers. Nicolas Cage recently starred as a truffle farmer looking for his kidnapped pet pig in Pig, a movie that ranks as the highest-rated live-action feature in Cage’s career. Fans of his are also looking forward to seeing him in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent in which he plays a fictional version of himself, forced to channel his action movie roles to save his family from a dangerous fan.

A release date hasn’t been officially announced for Renfield. This news comes to us from The Hollywood Reporter.