Cutting The Pirate

May 2nd, 2007 · 41 Comments

What use is a pirate in a landlocked country anyway?

(Wallachia was cut off from the Black Sea by the Ottoman Empire by 1420 or thereabouts)

Yes. I cut Grant DaNasty out of the film. The reasons were:

* Grant DaNasty is a stupid name that I cannot take seriously. (When he does turn up, I’ll probably use the alternate spelling of Grant DiNesti.)

* I only have 80 minutes. And in that 80 minutes I need to set up the backdrop, the history, the themes and five major characters to tell the story I want to tell. Because this isn’t going to be the usual kind of videogame adaptation, the kind that just transposes the least challenging parts of gameplay to the screen. This is going to be an actual goddamn film with an actual goddamn story. But I only have 80 minutes. To try and shoehorn Grant in there, when I’m already trying to create the space for Trevor, Sypha and Alucard to breathe and fill the screen (not even mentioning Dracula, Lisa or the Bishop for the moment)…no. I’d end up doing a bad job on all of them, and giving up whole chunks of the plot. At which point you might as well just call Uwe Boll, you know?

* Seriously, what use is a pirate on dry land? “Avast, ye swabs, and push me fecking cart! Arrr!” No. Just no.

* Did you see that thing I did in the first reason there?

Tags: Production Blog

41 responses so far ↓

nosferatu // May 2, 2007 at 2:56 pm

umm… just wanted to ask about the visual development team. Just wondering if it got picked already. Though I’d just drop the line…
Richter Belmont // May 2, 2007 at 4:20 pm

Let’s be honest: The true interesting characters of the story are Trevor, Sypha and Alucard.

Of course it would be great to have all of them in the movie, but if Grant must be eliminated in order to give more depth to the other characters I’ll get over it.
Warren // May 2, 2007 at 4:23 pm

I’m not in charge of visual dev, sorry.
Zaratustra // May 2, 2007 at 4:44 pm

Grant’s job in the game was more of a swashbuckler type, able to do acrobatics and climb walls. Just sayin’.
Warren // May 2, 2007 at 4:53 pm

I’m well aware of that. You just killed the comedy. Go and stand in the corner.
efin // May 2, 2007 at 11:10 pm

http://castlevaniadraculascurse.com/2007/02/12/video-game-movies/

Study.
efin // May 2, 2007 at 11:52 pm

Wait a sec. So Grant DaNasty is out… but Grant DiNesti is in?
PoisonMushroom.Org - Combing the Net So You Don’t Have To » Blog Archive » The Daily ‘Shroom - 5/3/07 // May 3, 2007 at 12:53 am

[…] Warren Ellis explains the lack of Grant in the forthcoming animated Castlevania: Dracula’s Curse […]
Victor // May 3, 2007 at 4:27 am

Might as well put ninjas at sea!
Garou // May 3, 2007 at 4:56 am

“What use is a pirate in a landlocked country anyway?”

Drinkin’ all ye grog of Wallachia?
Arrr!
Warren // May 3, 2007 at 6:48 am

SEA NINJAS!

I’m sold.
Illuminerdi // May 3, 2007 at 9:00 am

Without ninjas to fight, what the hell good is a pirate?

Speaking of which, will there be ninjas?

Also: please, Mr Ellis, for the love of god, don’t f*ck this up. Pretty please.

The film industry can ruin pretty much all the franchises you mentioned previously (RE, SMB, TR, etc), but not this one. Anything but Castlevania. I’m sorta hoping that this production acts like a pain buffer against the forthcoming Hollywood ruination of this franchise at the hands of Paul WS Anderson.
Warren // May 3, 2007 at 9:25 am

See, now I want to put SEA NINJAS in there, but I’d have to blow out the whole second act with Sypha and the Bishop Of Gresit and the Speakers and all kinds of useful stuff.

…nah, bollocks to the plot. Ninjas ahoy. On boats with little wooden wheels on.
Qualtagh // May 3, 2007 at 9:59 am

In the game you have a chance to sail on a pirate ship. No, not in the sea, but in a lake that is presumably connected to the sea.
Christopher Lantz // May 3, 2007 at 10:29 am

We judge… we do not forgive… we also consume and do not produce.
But I think we pay, cash often times. Your undertaking is not an enviable one. Perhaps you should choose an indignant fanboy who will never be happy with your adaptation choices to be your nemesis and just crush every expectation of his.
Jerkofwonder // May 3, 2007 at 10:33 am

Fist off… Warren, I love you. I love Ultimate Galactus, I love your work on Ultimate FF, New Universal, and almost wept when I found out you were almost done on thunderbolts (you took a boring, impossible to follow comic and made it a must read masterpeice). You are by far my favorite writer in comics today. But I have to say that as a hardcore Cv fan I am sad about this. I understand 100% why he had to go… but it still stings the fanboy at heart. Could you please elaborate on you comment of Denestie appearing? Even if he doesn’t make sense… Castlevania always had a sense of history, and history is full of characters that were out of place. He was there because of what was done to him, and was still valuable on dry land. But alas, I trust you. I would not have any other writer take my favorite franchise over you. Oh, and will we be seeing Hector or Isaac(from Curse of Darkness)? Even if not in the plot, just in the background. That would make you a god.
Devan // May 3, 2007 at 12:01 pm

It really wouldn’t shock me to learn that this dialogue has been had in the past. There must have been a dozen creators who came to a fork in the road; one path leading to plot, one to ninja.

Maybe that’s what happened to I Robot.

“Well, we could have a coherent story, or we could make Will Smith a half-robot ninja.”

The choice should be as clear to you as it was to them.
Frank B. // May 3, 2007 at 12:17 pm

Well, Grant really wasn’t a pirate to begin with. He was raggedy clad, yes, but not a pirate. The Japanese version described him as being a “freedom fighter”, a rebel of the area and member of the underground resistance movement. Made up of able fighters for the Wallachia area, the resistance sought to take back the land from Dracula and return peace, but upon facing Dracula’s forces head on, they were pretty much slaughtered. Those that weren’t(like Grant), were tranformed into monsters.
Ralph // May 3, 2007 at 12:51 pm

As mentioned before, Grant wasn’t a pirate but a rebel… or a ‘rogue’ type if you will.

He never had much of a story but it’d still be neat to at least see him in there, even if he’s just a background character.

About the name, if you want to follow Romanian history, you could always use what “DaNasty” was inspired from, the Danesti, real enemies of Vlad.
Warren // May 3, 2007 at 2:50 pm

Ralph: I’d probably do something similar, but all alterations of that nature have to be approved by IGA anyway. He’s approved everything I’m writing, including the omission of Grant from this film.

Jerkofwonder: I think I may take Lantz’ suggestion onboard and make you my Blog Nemesis. But, yes, I’ll get to elaborating on that point later. All is not lost.
Jerkofwonder // May 3, 2007 at 4:02 pm

Hehe, trust me I have no wish to be your nemises. I trust you based on your work in the past. So I’m sure that whatever you do, this film will be very enjoyable, even to my fanboy side. =)
Belmont // May 3, 2007 at 4:49 pm

Yeah, it was smart to let Grant go. I never played with him in the actual game anyways, I just went and got Alucard =P.
Frank B. // May 3, 2007 at 6:23 pm

Was DaNasty even officially approved? I recall many mistranslations occuring during that “era” of gaming. The horrible translation and alteration of “Dragon Power” from “Dragon Ball”. And we all know about the Poltergeist King. I think it WAS Danesti. Remember, Trevor was originally “Ralph”.

And for Grant’s background. Yeah, the whole idea of his fellow rebels being slaughtered like dogs sounds appealing. What did the manual say about it? Hmmm, “Some of the men were teared to pieces, others were sentenced to be skewered and some were transformed into hideous monsters. Grant Dinesti, carefree man from Wallachia was among them.”. Juicy!
Doom Saber // May 3, 2007 at 11:28 pm

I’d say, make Grant Denasty a (brief) comeo character and be done with it. It makes the fanboys happy w/o sacraficing your story. For instance, you can have an opening scene where monster Grant is battling Ralph/Trevor in a village engulf in flames. You can have Trevor defeat him near the latter part of theis sequence, resulting Grant to revert to his former self and move on.

I mean I think this is the one way to please fanboys without deleting a character; it worked for the darkstalkers night warriors anime.

I agree that you have to cut some characters out. Personally l didn’t like the Final Fantasy VII Advent children movie because I thought it was just a way for the company to milk the FF7 series; I am a fan of the original ff7 more it’s storyline and not it’s graphics. I was disppointed with the movie for having a terrible plot in place of action sequences and having a bunch of comeos that didnt go well with the peace of the film.
Warren // May 4, 2007 at 6:53 am

Well, no. I’d rather remove him from this film than waste him, you know? That’d just be a bit insulting.
efin // May 4, 2007 at 9:05 am

So which is gone, the character or just the name? Dracula’s Curse just isn’t even Dracula’s Curse to me without Grant. Back in the day, I’d always rush to get him so I could play the game as him unless he couldn’t handle the job. I’ll confess: I like Grant more than Trevor.

And c’mon, talk about good drama laid out for you! A rogue who sees his entire family get wiped away by Drac, only to be forced against his will to fight for the same guy?! If you’re worried about fitting it into the 80 minutes, just give us a couple of frames of flashbacks after he gets turned back and have him say “I don’t wanna talk about it… just trust me, there’s no one I’d rather see dead than that bastard vampire.” Maybe in the final battle a quick flash of his wife holding their child or something.

Then if you guys get to revisit the storyline another time, you’ll still have juicy backstory to cover.

Plus, he completes the team. You have the heroic Trevor, the magic of Sypha, the mystery of the good-guy-you’d-think-would-be-bad Alucard, and the quick and agile rogue Grant who’s class and (I imagine) stereotypical accent would also make him the best candidate for the comic relief lines.
Warren // May 4, 2007 at 9:13 am

Efin is my new Blog Nemesis.
efin // May 4, 2007 at 11:18 am

Hey, do I get a cape with that?
Warren // May 4, 2007 at 11:29 am

Right after my boot in your lungs, yes.
efin // May 4, 2007 at 11:51 am

Cool. At least I get a cape.
Doom Saber // May 5, 2007 at 8:54 pm

After reading your comment and the newer blog, I understand what you are saying and I agree; not that I am sucking uup to you or everything, but I support your decision. Correct me if I am wrong, but you stated here that you don’t want to waste him and in the newer blog, you said you are making three movies. With that in mind, I am thinking that you are either doing an OAV appoarch that is three episodes long or is planning to use Grant in a future project. If that is the case, I don’t think ppl should hound you for cutting the pirate guy.

Besides, you being a comic book writer that my friends admire (one of my friends can’t stop talking about Fell), I have complete faith in you.
It’s A Trilogy… | Castlevania: Dracula’s Curse // May 6, 2007 at 9:23 am

[…] Curse, told across three movies. Grant is not in the first movie. From Warren’s earlier post Cutting The Pirate, here it is again - When he does turn up, I’ll probably use the alternate spelling of Grant […]
gremmie // May 7, 2007 at 4:49 pm

the original name of grant danasty in castlevania III was grant DYNASTY. (look in old issues of nintendo power) now that you have a respectable name, you should consider giving him an audience.
Otaku-Man // May 8, 2007 at 9:05 am

@ gremmie

Whatever the romanization of the original Japanese spelling is, just as long as it has the right “sound” to it, then it should be fine.

Since Belnades, Belmont, and Alucard have been definitly set in stone over the years in the various games with those spellings, there’s no changing them.

Grant, however, has only had his surname appear in Castlevania 3. Although, if “Hammer” from the “Sorrow” series turns out be related to Grant, the irony would be MAJOR heavy.

Either way, whatever the spelling is, I’d be cool with it.

Just so long as grant is able to do at least some wall scaling anytime in the three movies, I’d be happy.

~Otaku-Man
Linny // Jun 14, 2007 at 12:23 pm

Well, im witting this reply from my guys from CASTLEMANIACS about Grant DaNasty.

First of all, Grant is quite important in the history of Vlad as his first enemy.

And second, imagining a pirate in Romania is not impossible. I will give u the example of “redbeard”, famous pirate born in the actual area of Romania in the end of 15th century.

I hope this makes u think about it and readd Grant to ur anime.

From the castlemaniac Linny
Sean // Jun 29, 2007 at 5:24 am

After hearing (or rather reading) why Grant is not in it….

It’s cool.

How many people actually played with him all the way through?

Just saying…maybe he should be in the Clock Tower, but gets killed.

And Alucard is a much better character than everyone else…besides Trevor
San Diego Comic Con | Castlevania: Dracula’s Curse // Jul 10, 2007 at 11:53 am

[…] VEIN. Check out his site for appearance locations and times. Don’t forget to wear your best Grant DaNasty […]
Rob N // Nov 12, 2007 at 10:00 pm

Guys, the man said at the very beginning Grant was cut so this movie won’t suck (paraphrasing but I don’t think I’m far off from the original intent). If losing Grant means we get a decent video game inspired film to show to the world then I say cut him like an umbilical cord.
TheUnbeholden // Dec 8, 2007 at 9:57 am

“DaNasty” was inspired from, the Danesti, real enemies of Vlad.”

yes indeed this is right.. I don’t think that he is a pirate.. i don’t think cutting out important characters is smart… Grant was put into the games.. so obviously if he was important enough to be put into the game then in the movie then surely hes important enough. Perhaps if not in the first movie then the second. And dont use his stupid name.. but Danesti .. these rivals where ongoing for a very long time.. Grants entire family was killed by the Vlad. this rebel now will fight dracula along side the 3 others. This is very important part of the plot.. i say forget about the bishop guy and put in Grant Danesti.. as in the rebel NOT the pirate… even if its a cameo appearance ..

PLEASE Dont remove him entirely…. please.. dont screw this up.
TheUnbeholden // Dec 8, 2007 at 10:00 am

grant was not killed with the rest

“Some of the men were teared to pieces, others were sentenced to be skewered and some were transformed into hideous monsters. Grant Dinesti, carefree man from Wallachia was among them.”

dracula turned him into the gaurd of the clock tower… a monster that alucard faced and eventually set him free from the curse..

See it all sounds awesome.. I really think you should think very clearly about this.. Please dont cut him out
Darcula // Nov 27, 2008 at 3:47 pm

The only time it was stated that Grant was a pirate was in the badly translated English manual. The Japanese manual makes no reference to pirates. Grant is more of a Robin Hood, heroic thief character. Cutting him would disappoint a lot of fans, including myself.