Corey Hawkins will star in Amblin Partners’ Last Voyage of Demeter, directed by Andre Øvredal, according to Deadline.com; this is a film that has been long in the making.
The Last Voyage of Demeter screenplay was written in 2002 by Bragi Schut and has spent the last seventeen years being passed around by several directors. Robert Swentke, (The Captain, Red, and R.I.P.D), Marcus Nispel, (Pathfinder and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre), and David Slade (30 Days of Night) each held moments in time where they were thought to be directing the film. Finally, the script found a home with Andre Øvredal.
The Last Voyage of Demeter is based on the chapter ‘The Captains Log’ of Bram Stoker’s 1897 classic, Dracula. The Russian schooner, Demeter, sets sail from Transylvania with twenty-four unmarked wooden crates, fifty boxes of Transylvanian soil, and, unbeknownst to the crew, Dracula. The Demeter arrives in the London port near Whitby Harbor with the corpse of the captain of the ship lashed to the helm.
The Last Voyage of Demeter is the terrifying account of the crew of the Demeter as they were stalked and slaughtered one by one by a mysterious passenger. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that the schooner’s name was Demeter, which in Greek Mythology represents the harvest, as each of the poor souls aboard the ship were harvested by Dracula. According to an interview with Alienexplorations.blogspot.com, Schut explained that he wanted the film to be like that of Ridley Scott’s Alien, telling the story from the point of view of the Russian crew.
Andre Øvredal got his start with the Trollhunter series where he learned from Guillermo del Torro. He went on to direct the Autopsy of Jane Doe and Scary Stories to Tell in The Dark. Bradley Fischer, Mike Medavoy, and Arnold Messer, who have produced such critical and box office hits as Black Swan, Shutter Island, and Zodiac are set to produce this film.
