15 Apr – Universal Pictures is set to produce "Renfield", a monster movie centered on the famous fictional henchman of Bram Stoker's Dracula. The upcoming project, written by Ryan Ridley based on an original story outline from Robert Kirkman, reportedly will have Chris McKay as its director - the latter who is currently in negotiation to helm the said project. In the original Bram Stoker Gothic horror novel, R.M. Renfield was an inmate at a lunatic asylum who serves Dracula. During the course of the novel, the role of Renfield as a patient allows the reader to understand his behaviour from the perspective of a psychologist and later learns the nature of a vampirism. Details of the movie have yet to be released, though sources claimed that it would take place in the modern day instead of a period piece. Among actors who have played the role in past films include Tom Waits in Francis Ford Coppola's "Bram Stoker's Dracula", Tony Haygarth in the 1979 film, "Dracula" starring Frank Langella, as well as Peter MacNicol, who plays the comedic Renfield in Mel Brooks' 1995 movie, "Dracula: Dead and Loving It".
"Renfield" will be one of the monster movie projects that Universal is currently working on, in addition to Ryan Gosling-starrer "Wolfman", and "Van Helsing", to be directed by James Wan. Chris McKay is known for directing "The Lego Batman Movie" and writing "Dolittle". He most recently directed live-action alien-invasion movie "The Tomorrow War" starring Chris Pratt.