Nicolas Cage’s take on Dracula is moving closer as the Universal Pictures movie Renfield has started shooting, and the studio has released an image of the opening clapperboard from the production to make the announcement. Directed by The LEGO Batman Movie helmer Chris McKay, the movie is written by Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman and Rick & Morty’s Ryan Ridley, and stars Nicholas Hoult in the title role of R.M. Renfield, the disturbed henchman of the bloodsucking Count.

The character of Renfield has appeared in all faithful iterations of Dracula put on screen, but this will be the first time he is the focus of the story, with the vampire taking a step back. In Bram Stoker’s novel, Renfield is being held in an asylum when he is first introduced and is obsessed with eating any living creature that he can get his hands on, including insects, spiders, and birds that he manages to lure into his cell. Throughout the story, he is suggested to be under the influence of Dracula, but is eventually killed by the Count after attempting to save Mina Harker from the vampire’s clutches. In almost every version of the character seen on screen, he is portrayed as the same unhinged and pitiful creature of Stoker’s creation.

In the image released by Universal, the clapperboard features the names of McKay and cinematographer Mitchell Amundsen, as well as the movie’s title written in a bold yellow and red font that was often used on horror feature films of the 1930s and 1940s and is therefore reminiscent of the type of title used in some marketing material for the 1931 version of Dracula, which starred Bela Lugosi. While there is currently no release date set for Renfield, it looks like the film will be ready for a release towards the end of 2022 or early in 2023.

Renfield Gives Universal Another Chance To Revitalize Its Classic Monster Character Catalog

Nicholas Hoult Is Renfield in Universal Monsters Movie About Dracula's Henchman

While Universal Pictures retains the rights to their classic interpretations of movie monsters and the characters associated with them, they seem to have been mostly unsuccessful in using them in a way that audiences or critics are happy to get on board with. Having made the big announcement of a Dark Universe being developed, only to see it fail after the Tom Cruise-led The Mummy, the studio seems to have considered their options and are now developing individual movies, all with a modern twist like 2020’s The Invisible Man. Ryan Gosling’s turn as the Wolfman is another movie in production, and Renfield will seemingly continue down the same route.

Renfield’s cast is still to be completely fleshed out, but in addition to Cage’s Dracula and Hoult’s Renfield, the film will also star the voice of Sonic The Hedgehog, Ben Schwartz and Shang-Chi’s Awkwafina, along with Adrian Martinez, Shohreh Aghdashloo and Bess Rous. Coming from the hand of Robert Kirkman, the story sees Renfield in a modern world, sick of being a lackey for Dracula and finding a new life for himself after falling in love with a traffic officer, and as Kirkman himself previously teased, will take the form of a violent comedy.