Sam Worthington set to play Dracula?

It now seems to be some sort of Hollywood law that Sam Worthington be linked with every major male role going. Flash Gordon. Captain America. Neil Buchanan in a big-screen version of Art Attack – he’s been connected to them all at some point.

It’s not exactly surprising. After all, since Jim Cameron took a gamble on the 33 year-old Aussie and cast him as the lead in Avatar – a gamble that we’re pretty sure has paid off – Hollywood types have been falling over themselves to cast Worthington, whether it’s in Terminator Salvation or Clash Of The Titans or The Debt or Last Night.

Since Avatar exploded, though, Worthington has kept schtum about what his next move might be. But now those bods over at Latino Review are reporting that his next move might be one out of leftfield: he’s set to play Dracula in Alex Proyas’ origin story, Dracula: Year Zero.

Origin story, we hear you cry? Yes, indeed, for Dracula: Year Zero – which Proyas has been trying to get off the ground for a while now – virtually ignores the Bram Stoker novel and instead, tells the tragic tale of how Vlad the Impaler, the legendary Romanian ruler who made a habit out of impaling his enemies on huge spikes (hence the name) and the figure who inspired a fair chunk of Stoker’s arch-villain, became the baddest bloodsucker of them all.

There is no Van Helsing here. No Mina Murray. No Jonathan Harker. Instead, what there is, if early script reports are to be believed, is an epic love story filled with huge battles and a lead character who gives into evil for noble reasons. Worthington would not be playing a glowering Christopher Lee type, but a tortured and often heroic soul, fighting the growing darkness within.

Although Worthington’s star quality and prowess as a box office draw in his own right has yet to be tested (most people are seeing Avatar for different reasons, it’d be fair to say), Dracula: Year Zero should be right up his street, actually – he did tortured/conflicted very well in Terminator Salvation, after all. And in a way, it might be destiny for him – he was born in Godalming, Surrey – and Godalming is the name of one of the major characters in Stoker’s novel. Spooky…

Of course, it’s early days yet, and Worthington hasn’t yet officially signed on. Meanwhile, Joblo is speculating that, with Universal keen to resurrect their movie monsters one by one (with The Wolfman about to come out, and Guillermo del Toro cooking up a post-Hobbit Frankenstein flick) that Dracula: Year Zero might gradually lose its prequel trappings and become just another Dracula movie. We’re not sure about that, especially if Universal have to fast-track this for a 2011 release.

/Empire Online/