Van Helsing will be a total reboot

Van Helsing
will be the latest monster movie to receive a shiny new reboot, with
Universal commissioning Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci to knock together
a script freshening up the legendary vampire hunter.

With
Tom Cruise in place to star, Kurtzman has been discussing what their
aim is for this new version of a property last seen in 2004. And from
the sounds of it, a total do-over seemingly the order of the day.

"I
don’t want to give away too much" he says, "because we are actually at
the very beginning of talking about what to do with it. But I do feel
like the Van Helsing that Anthony Hopkins plays in [Bram Stoker’s] Dracula
is sort of the parody version of it, and the Van Helsing that Hugh
Jackman played was obviously in a different place as well. I think that
these kinds of movies have evolved a lot since then."

"The Dark Knight
was a major, major corner-turning moment in the way that genre and
superhero stories could be told," he continues. "Really grounded in
reality. Really grounded in really cool things. That’s what I’d like to
do without sacrificing the fantasy element. We aspired to do that as
well on Star Trek, and we’d love to do that with Van Helsing."

With a rebooted version of The Mummy also
on their agenda, it should be a busy period for Kurtzman and Orci, and a
profitable one for Universal. The monsters are back in busines