Time and time again, Gary Oldman proves there’s nothing he can’t do. However, his latest project takes that statement to a whole new level. He is co-writing a book called Blood Riders which will “reinvent the rules and realities of vampires and sex and the power of love.”
“The power of love,” huh? It’s a curious thing, and that quote is from Oldman’s long-time manager and co-writer on Blood Riders, Douglas Urbanski. He spoke to Deadline about the project:
Back in 2009 when Gary was filming Book Of Eli, we came up with this story that had to do with vampires. Whether it might be a film, a series of books or a TV show, we didn’t pigeonhole it but we but buzzed by the idea. We met several times in my kitchen, mapped out the story and where it would go, reinventing the rules and realities of vampires and sex and the power of love. There were rabbit trails that went nowhere, but we concluded that we had landed on something we hadn’t seen done before.
Well, after having a bunch of book publishers bite on the idea, Oldman and Urbanski signed a deal with Simon and Schuster with the aim to publish Blood Riders in Spring 2016.
Unfortunately, there aren’t many clues of what they mean by redefining the “rules and realities” of vampires. Twilight did that too, and it wasn’t necessarily well-received among hardcore vampire fans. You have to think, though, Gary Oldman isn’t going to make vampires sparkle.
One trope Oldman and Urbanski aren’t redefining is an eye on the future. They want to make Blood Riders a trilogy:
First concern is to make sure the book comes out and is really good and we are planning a series of three of them. The first one ends leaving you needing to know what becomes of Magnus, the hero who had a curse placed on him by a vampire.
[Deadline]
Contact the author at germain@io9.com.