Universal’s Horror Comedy Renfield Begins Production, More Cast Revealed

Universal Pictures has released a behind-the-scenes photo, confirming that production on Chris McKay’s upcoming supernatural horror-comedy Renfield has officially begun.

In addition, Deadline also brings word that Oscar nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo (The Expanse) and Bess Rous (Ghostbusters) have also been cast to join titular lead, Nicholas Hoult. Rous will play a member of a toxic relationship support group named Caitlyn. Meanwhile, Aghdashloo plays Ella, a feared crime lord in the city.

Check out the Renfield production announcement below:

And it begins… #Renfield pic.twitter.com/IYGTkrggaa

— Universal Pictures (@UniversalPics) February 3, 2022

Renfield will also star Golden Globe winner Awkwafina (The Farewell) as Rebecca Quincy, and Oscar winner Nicolas Cage (Mandy) as Dracula along with Ben Schwartz (Parks and Recreation) and Adrian Martinez (Focus).

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The film center around Dracula’s titular henchman, who has grown sick and tired of the centuries he has worked as the dark prince’s lackey. He finds a new lease on life when he falls in love for a feisty, perennially angry traffic cop.

In the original 1897 Dracula novel, R.M. Renfield was an inmate at a lunatic asylum who was thought to be suffering from delusions but is actually a servant of Dracula. The role was originated memorably in the 1931 movie by Dwight Frye, followed by Tom Waits in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 Bram Stoker’s Dracula, then Peter MacNicol in the Mel Brooks parody Dracula: Dead and Loving It, and by Samuel Barnett on the TV series Penny Dreadful.

RELATED: Robert Kirkman: Universal’s Renfield is an ‘Extremely Violent Comedy’

Renfield is being directed and produced by Chris McKay (The Tomorrow War) from a story based on an original pitch from The Walking Dead’s Robert Kirkman and was written by Ryan Ridley (Rick and Morty). The film will be produced by Skybound Entertainment’s Kirkman, David Alpert, Bryan Furst, and Sean Furst, with McKay’s partner Samantha Nisenboim set as an executive producer.

It is part of Universal’s growing list of upcoming monster projects, including Elizabeth Banks’ Invisible Woman, Matt Stawki’s Monster Mash, Karyn Kusama’s Dracula, the Ryan Gosling-led Wolfman film, David Keopp’s long-gestated The Bride of Frankenstein reboot, Josh Cooley’s Little Monsters film, Blumhouse’s The Thing adaptation, the James Wan-produced Van Helsing movie, and more.

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