Earlier in the week we reported on a project called Harker, a new vampire film to be directed by House of Wax, Orphan and Unknown director Jaume Collet-Serra.

At the time Warner Bros. was closing still closing the deal to acquire Harker, a spec script by Lee Shipman & Brian McGreevy for a re-imagining of “Bram Stoker’s Dracula”. It focuses on Jonathan Harker as the Scotland Yard detective who is tracking Dracula, and the script sets up the sleuth as a potential new franchise character. It looks like that deal has been made.

Harker will be produced by Appian Way partners Leonardo DiCaprio (who is not planning to act) and Jennifer Davisson Killoran, in a coproduction with Mad Hatter Entertainment. Now there are reports that Russell Crowe may be taking the title role.

Vulture reports that, “Our spies tell us that Warner Bros. is in talks with Russell Crowe about starring in Harker, a reimagining of Bram Stoker’s Dracula that’s being produced by Leonardo DiCaprio. It tells the vampire story from the point of view of Jonathan Harker, who — instead of his traditional role as a lawyer — is now a Scotland Yard detective investigating the Count’s string of grisly murders in England.”

It seems that the scuttling of Akira made room for the film in Serra’s schedule. And, interestingly, the Vulture article makes Akira seem like a project Warner Brothers may be revisiting sooner than we thought after putting the kibosh on it recently.

What do you think of Crowe potentially playing this role? I’m hoping for two things. One, that it’s not too stuffy. And Two, that it’s not some Sherlock Holmes (or Van Helsing) type of rejiggering.