CBS is going in on the most famous vampire hunter in history. Van Helsing is turning into a crime fighter for a new series at CBS. Jonathan Lee, the author behind Lockerbie at Netflix is writing the series. Deadline was first with the news, and stated that it was a hotly contested auction between multiple bidders that CBS ended up winning.
Rob Doherty (creator of Elementary) is executive producing the series alongside Carl Beverly and Sarah Timberman. The show is said to be a contemporary take on the monster hunter. It puts Dr. Abraham Van Helsing with his ex, Mina Harker to solve New York City’s most harrowing cases. Fans of the character from Dracula might be a bit turned off about the contemporary setting, but it’s done wonders for other characters like Sherlock Holmes (multiple times) and even Hannibal.
Lee is the author of books including The Great Mistake. In addition to Lockerbie, he is co-creating a limited series about a Las Vegas heist with Reservation Dogs’ Sterlin Harjo for FX and adapting his book High Dive for the screen with Eric Roth.
We haven’t had a Van Helsing project since 2004’s movie starring Hugh Jackman alongside Kate Beckinsale. That movie, at the time, was seen as just a middling adaptation of the monster hunter, but now is a cult favorite. Vampire movies in general have finally recovered from the damage that Twilight did to the genre in the eyes of general audiences. We’ve seen movies like Renfield, The Last Voyage of the Demeter, and Abigail come from Universal Pictures in recent years.
We’ll have to see how this show takes on the story for Van Helsing and possibly Dracula.
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Source: Deadline
