Bekmambetov Leading Vampyric KNIGHTS TEMPLAR

By: Jarrod Sarafin
Date: Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Timur Bekmambetov, the man behind the Russian vampire series Night Watch, has a new vampire tale to spread for Universal Pictures, this time mixing the folk lore with the holy grail mythology. Variety reports that Universal and producer Bekmambetov are set to produce The Knights Templar. Screenwriters Adam Torchia and Justin Stanley penned the horror spec. Marc Platt will produce through his Marc Platt Productions, while Bekmambetov will shepherd the project through his Bazelevs Productions, with Jim Lemley.

The film puts a horror spin on the famed organization of fighters from the Middle Ages, with the Knights Templar, fresh from the Crusades, forced to fend off an invading vampire army set on destroying the Holy Grail.

Bekmambetov also directed The Irony of Fate and The Arena (2001).

Platt has produced such films as The Seeker: The Dark is Rising and Legally Blonde. He is currently producing or in post-production on Jeff the Immortal, Drive, and Wanted.

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Comments/Responses

gauleyboy420 • May 06, 2008, 12:36pm •

Sounds awesome!!!
I'll go see any of this guys movies.(even Wanted) I love his style, and I love cool fiction mixed in with cool history.

almostunbiased • May 06, 2008, 01:24pm •

This could be good, I'll be looking for the trailer. Like the time and who doesn't like Vampyres?

fft5305 • May 06, 2008, 01:34pm •

I can see the meeting now. "Ok, what's hot right now? Vampires? Cool, what else? Grail lore? Ok. Let's have vampires trying to destroy the Grail. Got it? Great. Greenlight it." It's only a matter of time before a suit figures out that Morbius could be a vampire superhero and puts it in production. Or tries to reboot or reimagine the Blade franchise...

WISEGUY562 • May 06, 2008, 02:21pm •

This does sound awesome indeed. I am curious to see what this guy does with Wanted because I hated the first two films from the Night Watch series. I do like his style and visuals and that usually draws me in but Night and Day Watch were both garbage to me. Here was another example of a couple of movies getting a passing grade just because it's foreign, let me retract that because I don't recall these films getting good reviews, only that they were big hits in Russia and that's probably because they're the first of their kind to be made in Russia by Russians.

gauleyboy420 • May 06, 2008, 05:24pm •

wiseguy, I really have to disagree about the Nightwatch Trilogy (first two parts). They are very cool,and the reason I like them isnt necesarily because they are foreign.

I like them because they take an often unexplored path on your typical fantasy good vs. evil stories. Now this may be because they are Russian and Russia doesn't follow the same cookie cutter formula that Hollywood movies CONSISTENTLY follow. I like them because they are original, with good acting, and great direction.

These are not the typical foreign films, and if you don't like them thats completely understandable, BUT it is not fair to them (the quality of their story, and production) that you try to pigeonhole them and their success as popular simply because they are from Russia.

irascible • May 06, 2008, 06:13pm •

I disagreed with Wiseguy last time on the foreign thing - but in the case of these films I'm with him. Nightwatch has some pretty cool visuals and the production was good but the story was crap.

wessmith1966 • May 06, 2008, 07:39pm •

As a big fan of both vampire and templar lore, I look forward to seeing this movie, or at least a trailer. I love the visuals and the overall mythology of the Nightwatch and Daywatch, but I have to admit that overall I thought the movies were pretty weak in execution of the story.

gauleyboy420 • May 06, 2008, 10:38pm •

guess I'll have to disagree with all ya'll then. I thought they were great movies. I've seen them both a few times. and am looking forward to the third (and hopefully fourth) installment.

I enjoyed the story, and thought they were really original and compelling. I haven't read the books their based on, but would like to find them.

ponyboy76 • May 07, 2008, 02:38am •

Well, I`ll disagree with everyone just for the sake of disagreeing. But really, I thought Day and Night Watch were very cool movies to watch. The mythology of the stories was really cool, visuals were very original in execution, but the story as it played out at times was pretty rough. It worked for these specific movies but if it had been in something else without the visuals the movies wouldn`t not have translated as well.

WISEGUY562 • May 07, 2008, 09:56am •

is good that we all disagree. But I really believe deep, deep, deep in my heart that if these same films were American they would've been ripped apart for the somewhat convoluted, non-sensical plot. That's just my opinion, admittedly I have a bias against foreign films because I feel that people and more specifically the critics and the self-important elitists always paint them as far superior to the home grown stuff. And I'am not trying to offend anyone who liked them, I'm just speaking in general terms.

Hell, if you liked them more power to you. That means you enjoyed about 4 hours of your life while I was miserable.

The part about their success was that they were really only a hit in Russia because of the home team. But for the most part and the rest of the world, especially here in the States they were pretty much flops, that's why I retracted my original statement.

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Bekmambetov Leading Vampyric KNIGHTS TEMPLAR

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