— by VANNA LAND —
Considering the success of the “Harry Potter” and “Twilight” series, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that more and more movies based on supernatural characters are being made.
Next up is “Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant,” based on a popular young adult series of fantasy-adventure novels written by Darren Shan.
The books tell the story of a teenage boy, oddly enough also named Darren Shan, who leaves his boring life behind to join a traveling circus of supernaturals, becoming a ‘half-vampire’ and assistant to the big boss vampire.
In the process, he unknowingly breaks a 200-year-old truce between two warring factions of vampires and must now fulfill his own nightmare-like destiny in a world filled with sideshow freaks and creatures of the night.
The film was directed by Paul Weitz (“American Pie”) and stars John C. Reilly as the boss vampire, Chris Massoglia as Darren and Josh Hutcherson as Darren’s best friend. Rounding out the cast are notables such as Ray Stevenson, Ken Watanabe, Patrick Fugit, Willem Dafoe, Salma Hayek, Orlando Jones and Jane Krakowski.
The movie is set to hit screens on Oct. 23, just in time for Halloween. The trailer looks and feels like the movie could well be a winner. And do I smell sequel? The potential is surely there with a 12-book saga to pull from. And with a tagline like “Meet Darren. He’s sixteen going on immortal,” how could they end with just one?
That’s an incredible cast they have put together.