It has been years in the making, but Dracula: Year Zero was officially given the green light this month, with Luke Evans (The RavenFast & Furious 6) as the star. Universal has now set an official release date for the movie, and it looks like we won't have too long to wait.

The official title is now Dracula, and Universal plans to release the movie on August 8th, 2014. Gary Shore is set to direct the film from a script written by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless: "The script tells of a young prince who, when the lives of his wife and child are put in danger by a bloodthirsty sultan, risks his soul to save them, and in the process becomes the first vampire."

Here's some more information on what we can expect from a previous interview Collider conducted with producer Mike De Luca:

“...these writers came up with the ingenious-what I think is ingenious-approach combining historical Dracula with Bram Stoker’s Dracula. So it chronicles the efforts of a young prince, Vlad of Transylvania trying to keep the Ottoman empire and the Turk’s of the time from using his small country as a stepping stone to invade Europe….

…As written it’s literally on the scale of Braveheart with Dracula, so it’s a lot of…it’s armies. It’s an invading Turkish army. It’s a lot of supernatural action. It’s wonderful. Like it’s an epic love story.”

Expect more casting news to begin rolling in soon. With the movie's release less than a year and a half away, we should have a steady stream of news on this project.

Source: THR