Dredd executive producer/self-proclaimed rebel filmmaker/self-proclaimed voice of the digital generation Adi Shankar loves putting edgy spins on pre-existing properties with clever, viral-friendly short films. He’s one of the guys behind The Punisher: Dirty Laundry, Venom: Truth In Journalism, Judge Dredd: Superfiend, James Bond: In Service Of Nothing, and Power/Rangers, none of which were actually officially licensed by the various groups that control The Punisher, the Power Rangers, Judge Dredd, and James Bond. For his next project, though, Shankar is going to try doing things the legal way, for once.
As reported by Collider, Shankar announced on Facebook that he’s producing a “super violent” animated miniseries based on Konami’s Castlevania video games, and he’s teamed up with Frederator Studios—which owns the Castlevania adaptation rights—to do it. The Castlevania games are (mostly) about a family of whip-loving vampire-hunters called the Belmonts and their centuries-long mission to kill Dracula. Shankar says this miniseries will be primarily based on Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse, which happens to be the first appearance of fan-favorite character Alucard—and also a guy named Grant Danasty, since sometimes names are hard to come up with. Shankar says there will be “a lot” of violence, and it’ll somehow be “America’s first animated series for adults” even though that’s patently untrue. He adds that it’ll be “dark, satirical, and after a decade of propaganda it will flip the vampire sub-genre on its head,” and the animation will be influenced by “Akira, Ghost In The Shell, Ninja Scroll, and Young Justice,” because those are exactly the things someone would reference if they had recently Googled “cartoons that cool people like.”
Speaking of the animation, Frederator is at least as famous as Shankar is on its own. It’s the studio behind classic-ish Nicktoons The Fairly OddParents, My Life As A Teenage Robot, and ChalkZone, and it works on a little show called Adventure Time. Obviously none of those are super violent, but Adventure Time in particular knows how to appeal to an audience well beyond the usual kids who watch Cartoon Network. We don’t know when or where this Castlevania thing will be released, but this sounds like it’s in the early stages, so it’s probably pretty far off.