Deadline brings word that Golden Globe winner Awkwafina (The Farewell, Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens) is set to join Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult in Universal Pictures horror comedy Renfield. No details have been released confirming what role Awkwafina will be playing in the monster flick, which was previously reported as being set in the present day.
Hoult will play Renfield, the familiar henchman of Dracula, who will be portrayed by Nicolas Cage.
RELATED: Nicolas Cage to Play Dracula in Upcoming Film Renfield
In the original 1897 Dracula novel, R.M. Renfield was an inmate at a lunatic asylum who was thought to be suffering from delusions but is actually a servant of Dracula. The role was originated memorably in the 1931 movie by Dwight Frye, followed by Tom Waits in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 Bram Stoker’s Dracula, then Peter MacNicol in the Mel Brooks parody Dracula: Dead and Loving It, and by Samuel Barnett on the TV series Penny Dreadful.
The film will be directed by Chris McKay from a story based on an original pitch from The Walking Dead’s Robert Kirkman and was written by Ryan Ridley (Rick and Morty). The movie will be produced by Skybound Entertainment’s Kirkman, David Alpert, Bryan Furst, and Sean Furst.
RELATED: Nicholas Hoult to Star in Universal’s New Monster Film Renfield
Awkwafina most recently appeared on the big screen in Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Upcoming projects also include Apple’s sci-fi drama Swan Song, starring opposite Mahershala Ali, DreamWorks Animation’s The Bad Guys, Disney’s live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, and The Baccarat Machine.
