Why a trilogy?
I spent a month or more pacing around the central problem of this film. Which is the format. 80 minutes. I knew, coming on board, that this was the format, and I liked it, because it was a technical challenge. But Kevin knew, when I came on board, that I wanted to write a film, not some by-the-numbers videogame adaptation. I wanted it to have some depth to it. I wanted to explore the environment of medieval Wallachia somewhat, I wanted the ordinary people to speak, I wanted a hint of feudal politics. And I wanted a vein of strangeness to it (also, an element of springpunky prochronism, which I’ll get to later).
(Also, people getting whipped. With Devo playing in the background.)
So what, in real terms, does an 80-minute runtime mean? It’s a third of THE GODFATHER II. Half a SPIDER-MAN 3. The shortest cut of Woo’s THE KILLER is still a hundred minutes or so. It’s a hair under two episodes of a standard American network tv drama.
That’s not a whole hell of a lot. And while I could have gone balls-out and crammed the beats of the source material into the film, going from introducing Trevor to beating Dracula inside 80 minutes… I don’t think it would have made a very good film. In fact, what I found was that stopping a third of the way in, while obviously not telling the entire story within the source material, actually made a better film. Trevor to Sypha to Alucard carries a solid classical three-act structure, in fact, with actual resolution at the end. It’s a self-contained film. The film obviously has the intention of a sequel, but doesn’t require it to be a whole thing: it resolves its own plots and themes.
A trilogy lets us address the entirety of the source material, the uberplot. Each third of the source material has its own three-part structure lurking inside it. And if, you know, everything goes to hell and we don’t get to do the trilogy? We’ve still got the best version of the film there, and it doesn’t demand the presence of the other two parts for it to work as its own thing. It would just like them.
– W
35 responses so far ↓
Pedro // May 9, 2007 at 7:58 am
I’m really glad it’s going to be a trilogy. With only 80 minutes, you can’t have a well-developed plot for three main characters (four if you include Dracula) AND kickass undead slaughtering. Naturally, since a video game adaptation based entirely on story would not work, the plot would have to be sacrificed for the action, and you’d end up with Castlevania: Advent Children.
Bill Cunningham // May 9, 2007 at 8:20 am
I like threes. Threes work in a lot of ways for story:
3 equal acts
3 main characters - a triangle
a trilogy (which is really one story in three acts again)
What interests me is you and your producers’ determination of 80 mins. as the “right” length for an animted movie. I just watched the IRON MAN D2DVD movie and it was a little shorter. Not saying you’re “right’ or they are “right” - just interested in how you determined the number.
RJG // May 9, 2007 at 8:30 am
The idea of a film each, roughly, is very intriuging. I like it. I can easily see fans waiting with baited breath for the final Alucard version though. Our Al seems to have a bit of a following.
Any chance of seeing Soma anywhere is there at all? Even as a portrait on a wall as a sort of wink at the fanbase. It would be no more out of place than seeing portraits of Mario in the castle in Hyrule and, to be honest, Aria of Sorrow is probably the best CV ever. SOTN’s Inverted Castle can suck it.
MAX_LE_FOU // May 9, 2007 at 9:23 am
Cool, thanks for the great explanation above. It strengthens the fact that the project is in very good hands. Now I’m even more exited about it.
Pedro // May 9, 2007 at 9:26 am
“Aria of Sorrow is probably the best CV ever. SOTN’s Inverted Castle can suck it.”
Heretic!
Quick! Let’s burn him at the stake!
Paul_The_Nerd // May 9, 2007 at 11:06 am
Honestly, as far as I’m concerned, making it a good film should be the up front priority, so news makes me happy.
I’d rather watch something good, and then say “Why the hell isn’t there more of this?” than watch something crap and wonder why I spent the money, even if it means spending the next few years wondering why there wasn’t a continuation.
MAX_LE_FOU // May 9, 2007 at 12:06 pm
““Aria of Sorrow is probably the best CV ever. SOTN’s Inverted Castle can suck it.”
Heretic!
Quick! Let’s burn him at the stake!”
Everyone know that Castlevania 64 is the best one around. :p
Otaku-Man // May 9, 2007 at 12:07 pm
@Pedro
Now now, fanboys will be fanboys. But while emphasizing on the roles of Sypha, Trevor, and Alucard is important, I don’t want anyone to forget that somewhere within the Trilogy Grant SHOULD show up.
While Trevor did go on to hook up with Sypha (I believe IGA verified that they did become a couple after this adventure), and Alucard is important for reasons too long to list here, Grant is still one of the cast.
His character was based on a family that was historically rivals with the Tepes family. Not to mention he was transformed and stuck in the Clock Tower that would have led directly to Dracula’s Castle (until it collapsed after freeing Grant), blocking the passage and forcing them to reach the petrified Sypha.
I admit that going to free Grant was optional, but as leader of the resistance movement when Count Vlad Tepes took the title of Dracula, he should be seen and part of the party.
Even if not permanently!
For example, when Trevor met a new partner for his journey, he had the option to take them along or not.
Let’s say Trevor goes into the tower near the beginning of Part 2, trying to get to Dracula as fast as possible. At the top of the tower, he fights Grant, frees Grant of curse, and escape crumbling tower.
With path blocked off, Grant helps Trevor get through the forest that leads to the graveyard where Sypha was petrified.
After freeing Sypha from the cyclops’ curse, she joins Trevor and Grant then decides to leave. He could feel that it would be better if he stayed in the village to protect the village survivors from Dracula’s goons while Trevor and Sypha continue on to find another way into the castle.
This effectively cuts Grant’s screen time so that he can easily appear and disappear in Part 2, but be around just long enough to satisfy the fan base.
Then, in Part 3, when Dracula is finally defeated, a scene could be devoted to showing Grant protecting villagers from zombies and skeletons when all of a sudden, the monsters collapse into dust or vanish or whatever, leaving a very surprised Grant.
Grant could then look towards the castle, smile, and go “Sweet Jesus! They actually did it!”
Or something like that.
Final appearance of Grant could be when Trevor and Sypha return to the village, and find Grant and the townspeople welcoming them back.
It’s just an idea, but if the emphasis was going to be on Sypha, Trevor, and Alucard, I think this would still allow Grant to be a part of the story, as he was in the game, but keep his participation to a minimum. That way, the already planned out story for Trevor, Sypha, and Alucard can proceed as normal, sans Grant.
It kind of makes sense since after Trevor passes through Stages 1-1 - 1-4, the village, that someone should at least go back there to protect the people from the still swarming armies of Dracula.
Grant could be that person.
What do you guys think?
~Otaku-Man
Arikado // May 9, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Perdro and MAX_LE_FOU:
Did I read this right? Did I actually find two people that were crazy about Castlevania 64 like me? OMG!
That was easily the best 3-D Castlevania out ever!!! It was pure Castlevnia story with its roots dug deep in Resident Evil.
Focus now Arikado…………
Okay!
As for the trilogy I’m glad I now know a little more about the developers backstory beind this decision.
Azmael // May 9, 2007 at 1:57 pm
Otaku-Man you should be the co-writer dude!!!, i totally agree with you.
Keniley // May 9, 2007 at 2:33 pm
Mr. Ellis, when you say springpunk, are you thinking along the lines of planetary-esque styling, and if so, let the whole castle move and shift like one gigantic, complex clock. It will allow you to create different obstacles for each movie, keeping the fight scenes and exploration of the castle fresh. If not, ignore the above sentences.
Greg // May 9, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Yes, for god’s sake make this a proper film. I’ve had it up to here (gestures at scalp) with vampire movies that have no content beyond “Look, there are vampires, and they all shop at Skin Two Online!”
Jerkofwonder // May 9, 2007 at 4:11 pm
http://castlevania.classicgaming.gamespy.com/Images/Scans/CoD/comic8.jpg
As you can see in this page from the Curse of Darkness prequel manga (japanese pre-order bonus) Trevor had Grant, Sypha, and Alucard with him when he defeated Dracula.
Ryan // May 9, 2007 at 4:17 pm
@Otaku-man, call me greedy, but I want Grant to get more screentime than that. He, along with the others, walked up the steps to Dracula’s throne room. In my opinion, that’s the way it should stay. He was just as much a major player in the game as any of the other three. And if anything, his lineage as one of the Dinestis is all the more reason for him to remain one of the group rather than just some freedom fighter schmuck who grabbed a knife and joined the fray.
Besides, a similar suggestion was put in earlier, seen here:
#
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(…)”
A reply to that message:
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.”
I’m inclined to agree with the latter post. I’d rather see all four in action against the count than see three and a little imp in the background cheering them on; it rails on cliche. To be honest, it just seems weak.
Pedro // May 9, 2007 at 5:23 pm
“Did I read this right? Did I actually find two people that were crazy about Castlevania 64 like me? OMG!”
Nah, I’m afraid you only found one. Sadly, I never had the chance to play the 64 games =(
And about Grant… perhaps Dracula should kill him at the final battle. I know I might be angering a lot of fans with this, but think about it. Killing a main character would strenghten Dracula’s character AND make the final battle even more memorable and awesome. Naturally, this character can’t be Trevor or Alucard; and as the hero’s love affair, Sypha can’t be it either. We’re left with Grant.
Still, only something I thought would be cool… I can understand if you don’t want to see it happen =P
Ryan // May 9, 2007 at 6:33 pm
Well, it’s not a matter of whether or not I don’t want to see it happen, though I don’t, since I am admittedly a fanboy. It doesn’t work plot-wise. Sure, changes have been done a bit liberally to the storyline in order to tailor it to suit the movie, but tastefully. The endings have been left untouched, not only because doing so would be a step too far as far as changes go, (my opinion, but I digress). As far as Grant’s ending, he goes on to head the rebuilding Wallachia after the crisis, according to the game. Which makes sense with the changes, since as the head of the freedom fighters, it’d be logical for him to oversee the reconstruction. And in the aforementioned comic scan in an earlier post, all four heroes are still standing– Grant included– after the count’s been done in.
Retconning both the game and the manga for the sole purpose of adding a cheap dramatic effect at the cost of killing off a supporting character in the end would be shoddy work. The only person who died officially (er, almost died, if you want to be technical) is the count.
Besides, haven’t we seen that in just about every action movie out there? Main character spouts off “Don’t worry, I’ll get them for you” as the supporting character lets out a death rattle and drops like a ragdoll? Color me jaded, but let’s leave that to the summer flicks.
Patrick // May 9, 2007 at 7:53 pm
Trilogies are the new Hollywood bread-and-butter… until they realize they’ll continue to get revenue with Spiderman 4, Shrek 4, Pirates 4, Ocean’s 14, etc.
George Lucas announced two more Star Wars movies… Yep, trilogies are too limiting. Better plan for an addendum.
Douglas Cartland // May 10, 2007 at 1:49 am
The more I read these posts, the more I believe this project is in good hands. Please keep us updated.
Oh, and for the record IMHO; Castlevania 64 and Legacy of Darkness rocked!
Villephox // May 10, 2007 at 3:42 am
First off, I had no idea this was going on until last night, and I have to say this is one of the most exciting things I’ve heard in a long, long time.
Secondly, I think trilogies are a deep part of human nature. Three is a very balanced number. But more importantly, 80 minutes isn’t long enough to tell a story like this without killing the feel of it, and two 80 minute movies would seem a little silly.
I was never a big fan of Grant, but I understand why everyone would want him in there. Still, I would agree with those that say it’d be better if he wasn’t there at all, rather than not get his due. A cameo would be interesting, but would also seem pretty cheap, you know?
Also, I liked the 64 games a lot. They weren’t spectacular, but they were still pretty fun.
MAX_LE_FOU // May 10, 2007 at 4:41 am
Douglas Cartland wrote: “Oh, and for the record IMHO; Castlevania 64 and Legacy of Darkness rocked! ”
Arikado wrote: “Did I read this right? Did I actually find two people that were crazy about Castlevania 64 like me? OMG!”
Actually I really did enjoyed CV64 and LOD (and I still play them).
All four characters should be in there. Espacially at the end. If all four are up against the Count it just makes Dracula seem even more powerfull. A “Woh! They’re four and they are still having a hard time beeting him” kind of emotion.
Victor // May 10, 2007 at 4:53 am
If this was a post SOTN Castlevania it’d be more like:
80 minutes in normal castle
80 minutes in flipped castle
80 minutes trying to find what you forgot to check back on because you couldn’t double jump/glide/etc
So, will the dvd boxset be awesome. Have the inside slip be a Castle Map gradually being uncovered with every disc.
Douglas Cartland // May 10, 2007 at 5:29 am
MAX_LE_FOU: “All four characters should be in there. Espacially at the end. If all four are up against the Count it just makes Dracula seem even more powerful”
Or just have Grant not show up in the entire movies until the very end where he just drops an axe from the ceiling and claiming dibs on the killing of dracula right before dracula dies. haha. How’s that for comic relief. >_
MAX_LE_FOU // May 10, 2007 at 6:19 am
lol! Nice… but… no.
Otaku-Man // May 10, 2007 at 7:38 am
@JerkofWonder
VERY nice scan there. Too bad I’m not THAT good at reading Kanji yet, but I could make it out that Isaac is blaming the fall of the Count (the bat that disintegrated before landing in his hands) on Hector for abandoning him.
And you are right that even though they were silhouettes, you could still make out Alucard (the very vampire-esque collar), Sypha (the robes), and Grant (who looked like he could pass for Trevor, but Trevor’s already in the picture, even if it is just his hand on the Vampire Killer whip).
So this does mean that all 4 were together AFTER the defeat of Dracula. Whether Grant was present during the actual final battle, it doesn’t really state, but even so, it does show that they were all together.
@Ryan
S’okay to be greedy, I’m just concerned that if Mr. Ellis is having a hard time writing the character into the story, then my idea could be a possible solution to keep him from having to try and work a lot with this character.
Sure, seeing Grant stick around when Trevor meets Sypha would be great, and when they next meet Alucard. The more help, the better, especially with the battles and fights.
So long as he’s in there and treated properly (not as a swarthy pirate, but as a town local and representative of the Dinasti family who leads the town against Dracula) then I’m fine with it.
Who knows!? Maybe one possible way to have Grant in the first movie could be that he suspects Count Vlad Tepes, head of the Tepes family, to be involved in the Dark Arts. This could lead Grant to being the one to accuse Lisa of being a witch which sets the entire curse of Dracula in motion. Or it could lead to him witnessing conversations with Dracula and the super-natural (or Dracula performing super-natural acts).
Just ideas there.
@Pedro
No, it’s not canon with the games. Grant should not be killed just to bring out sappy emotions. Kevin Smith when making the first Clerks movie was going to have Dante killed off by a random burglar at the end of the movie. Just as things started going good for the guy, Dante’s luck just goes to hell… again.
Problem was that it wouldn’t leave the audience very satisfied. So, Smith cut the scene out and let the movie end on a happy note. It was quite satisfying.
Same thing should happen with the end of the 3rd Castlevania 3 movie. When Dracula is finally slain by Trevor and the others, a feeling of satisfaction and return to peace should overwhelm the viewers.
Like when you beat the game itself (whether for the first time or any time), you feel a sense of satisfaction of the accomplishment of making it to the Count and slaying him. The same feeling should be provided at the end of the movie.
Even so, to lead into Curse of Darkness, Dracula places his infamous curse, and as in the manga, can disintegrate before Isaac’s eyes, thus leaving him with a great despise for Hector that leads into the events of Curse of Darkness.
@Douglas Cartland
That’s just stupidly anticlimatic and would totally go AGAINST the entire feel of the movies. No.
@The fans of Castlevania 64 and it’s perfected version - Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness
Castlevania 64 is balls to the walls hard when it didn’t HAVE to be. The controls were a bit sensitive, the platform jumping was risky and with little room for error, and the bit with the nitro glycerine was a pain in the neck.
Now only if they had made sure to keep the names right (Fernandez = Belnades).
@Ryan again
I have a feeling this is the beginning of a bee-yoo-tee-ful friendship.
~Otaku-Man
Doom Saber // May 10, 2007 at 9:59 am
I honestly believe Ellis knows what he is doing and what he has in store for Grant, giving the he comment that he doesn’t want to waste him.
I mean, we shouldn’t pursue the guy. For all we know, he may retaliate and based his version of Grant off of the village people. LOL j/k
Arikado // May 10, 2007 at 10:48 am
In Dracula’s curse there were actually 4 different endings to the game depending on how you beat the game. With just Trevor; Trevor + Grant; Trevor+Sypha; Trevor+Alucard.
So I believe that it would not be right for any of the characters to get killed. Having said that if someone did have to die, I would prefer Sypha. A little bit of romance ending with Ms. Belnades dieing thus making Trevor really pissed off would be perfect.
Otaku-Man: I honestly didn’t believe that n64 Castlevania was that hard. In Legacy of Darkness I actually managed to play through the game as all 4 characters. I even manged to rescue all of the children on only my 2nd playthrough as Henry Oldrey.
Otaku-Man // May 10, 2007 at 10:50 am
For the record, I have a history of often jumping to conclusions, making incorrect assumptions, and also being a very verbose talker.
In other words, I don’t only stick my feet in my mouth, I also chew on them as I keep talking with them in it!
Yeah.
All comes with the whole Aspberger’s Syndrome thing. If Warren knows Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner, then he might be familiar with it.
~Otaku-Man
Arikado // May 10, 2007 at 11:26 am
Eureka! Grant could enter the film by Trevor finding him walking around the castle (of which Trevor will not get to until movie#2) looking for treasure(what? he’s a pirate).
Otaku-Man // May 10, 2007 at 12:42 pm
@Arikado
Unless you’re just horsing around, I find it very hard to believe that you completely missed Warren’s comment that Grant is NOT A PIRATE!
I don’t even think he was a pirate to begin with!
And besides, “wandering around?” He was turned into a giant humpbacked monster that tried to kill Trevor!
Please tell me you’re not serious. PLEASE!
~Otaku-Man
Arikado // May 10, 2007 at 1:11 pm
I was serious but only because I was not in my right mind. I think I suffer from your disease of blurting things out without checking out all of the facts… What did you think about my plan for Sypha?
Arikado // May 10, 2007 at 1:12 pm
I was serious but only because I was not in my right mind. I think I suffer from your disease of blurting things out without checking out all of the facts… What did you think about my plan for Sypha??
Douglas Cartland // May 10, 2007 at 1:33 pm
Otaku-Man: A part of my message didn’t get through when I posted that comment. It was meant to end with “>__”. The comment was meant as a joke.
On a more serious note: What’s good to see though, (I might add to my previous comment) is that the project seems to be in good hands. The people behind it seem to genuinely have a passion for Castlevania and do not want to screw this up. The more posts I read on this blog, the more I believe the animation this will be good. Especially because of the fact they read what the fans have to say during the planning process.
Unlike Uwe Boll films.
Seraphim // May 11, 2007 at 6:09 am
Having read things through, personally I agree with the writers with their decisions on making Dracula’s Curse into a trilogy, and for cutting Grant from the movie.
I’m all up for having the story told over three films. 80 minutes alone really sin’t enough to be able to fully flesh out a storyline and have decently portrayed characters, that you really want to care about or hate. Plot is the name of the game here, and if it’s too threadbare and the characters are too bland, then it can easily ruin the movie.
Despite being a huge fan of the games, I can fully agree that cutting Grant was a good move for the movie, if anything for the changes required to transfer a game’s plotline to a movie’s. Yes, pirates are a very ‘in thing’ at the moment, what with POTC 3 about to be released, and yes, Grant is an important character in the original CV3 game. However, in a CV movie, feel that including a swashbuckling pirate goes against the scene, especially one set for a more adult audience. I agree that Grant’s ‘proper’ name is somewhat cheesy. It could be very easy to ruin the dark and gothic mood of the setting by having such a character included. Sorry loyalists.
Game plot and movie plot are two completely different beasts, and as such the translation of the Dracula’s Curse plot must be handled with care to be able to make a successful transition from one format to the other. Much like when say translating an anime from Japanese into English, sometimes changes have to be made to the wording to be able to make the dub work.
Personally, I’m excited to see the results of a Castlevania movie made by people who actually care about the storyline and making a movie which actually works. It would be lovely to see the same level of care in the reported making of the Live Action Castlevania movie. Another CV game storyline which I would find interesting to see translated into a movie would be Lament of Innocence- it provides a much more interesting source for why Dracula is as he is.
Apocali // May 14, 2007 at 6:53 pm
I still wonder how you can stretch Castlevania 3 into 3 movies I mean it doesn’t have that deep of a plot. Unless you make the second and third movies based off of Curse of Darkness as a sequel and Lament of Innocence as a prequel I don’t see this working too well plot-wise. Also who are you going to replace with Grant with because without him they are only 3 main heroes, I mean regardless if he’s a pirate Grant was still an important character and I can’t possibly see him getting cut out. Finally is Death still Dracula’s right hand or is he just another mindless monster? I sure hope this good because has so much room to be great.
Denise Chan // Jul 19, 2007 at 8:25 pm
I wished there’s a another Castlevania Game for these series such as the return of Castlevania heroes from Dracula’s Curse; Trevor Belmont, Sypha Belnades, Grant DaNasty and Alucard Tepes.
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