Just as I reported that there are two Dracula movies in production, we got word of another set of movie twins coming our way.

It was announced today in Variety that Dean Koontz, a poor man’s Stephen King, will get to see his series of Frankenstein adapted into films.

Koontz’s version of the story, originally based on Mary Shelley’s gothic novel, will see the mad Doctor Frankenstein and his creation in modern-day New Orleans, wreaking havoc on the locals. The monster, now named Deucalion, gets caught up in a murder investigation incurring the detecting skills of two nosey gum shoes.

Ralph Winter and Terry Botwick will be producing the project but will see it go up against the previously announced Patrick Tatopoulos’ I, Frankenstein.

I’m actually more excited about Patrick’s version; I’m just working on a first come, first served basis today and I’m sticking to it until we see some concept artwork. And the Koontz project better have some pretty spectacular artwork to go up against Patrick as he’s a creature designer and general special effects wiz.

There’s no set date for these two projects so everybody’s got plenty of time to try to get one over on the other team.

Yeah, vampires are cool and everything but Twilight has ruined them for me a little bit. But there’s light at the end of the tunnel folks: there are two Dracula movies coming our way.

The Hollywood Reporter announced today that the writer of The Crazies, Scott Kosar, is reworking a script about Vlad The Impaler, who many will know went on to be known as Dracula.

Kosar is re-jiggering the original script that was written by Green Street star Charlie Hunnman which will cover Vlad’s early years.

Anthony Mandler will be helming the project in his feature film debut but will be going head-to-head with Alex Proyas’ Dracula: Year Zero, starring Avatar’s Sam Worthington.

At least we know that given Kosar’s past work, we know it won’t be mopey teenage vampires going on about their pathetic love lives. He penned The Amityville Horror remake, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake and The Machinist so hopefully the new film will be nice and dark.

Quentin Tarantino thinks he can turn his hand to anything these days, but unfortunately, I saw Inglourious Basterds and clearly he can’t.

But now he’s gone and told the New York Daily News what he’d like to do for his next project.

The Oscar nominated director claims that, “I’d like to do a Western,” Tarantino told the New York Daily News. “But rather than set it in Texas, have it in slavery times. With that subject that everybody is afraid to deal with. Let’s shine that light on ourselves.”

Interested? Meh. The most I’d expect from a Tarantino western is some good shootouts but that’s about it.

“You could do a ponderous history lesson of slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad. Or you could make a movie that would be exciting. Do it as an adventure. A spaghetti Western that takes place during that time. And I would call it a ‘Southern’.”

So Tarantino wants to take on ye old slavery times, but will he do a Basterds and rewrite history? Though I might have fallen slightly out of love with him, I’d be excited about this news if I knew the film was going to look like this.

If you’re a big sci-fi fan then grab a Kleenex because you could get a lil’ teary eyed at what I’m about to tell you.

Roland Emmerich, the director behind 2012, is helming an adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series. See what I mean about the Kleenex.

It’s always hard for fans of books to see the movies being made and it’s even harder when you find out Mr. I Love Explosions is the one making it.

The Foundation series are prominent pieces of sci-fi literature and it’s got a lot going on, but knowing adaptations like I do, you’ll have to read the books to get the full picture because you’re never gonna get it in the films.

Wikipedia handily simplifies the story of the series as: Foundation tells the story of a group of scientists who seek to preserve knowledge as the civilizations around them begin to regress.

In an exclusive interview with MTV, Emmerich described his plans for the project; he’s basically going to steal from James Cameron.

“The Avatar technology applies to Foundation. It has to be done all CG because I would not know how to shoot this thing in real.”

Steal from Cameron all you want but if I see start seeing comparisons with anything (Pocahontas), I’m going to be sending you a little present, Roland. Put it this way, if you see a bag of poo on fire on your doorstep, it was me.

“Probably now all big movies have to be 3-D. It’s not only the effect of 3-D, [‘Avatar’ has] just shown that if you do a movie in 3-D, you can ask for more money and that’s the trick. I think now everybody who does bigger movies has to shoot them in 3-D. I think there’s no way around it. I was on the set of Avatar and I saw how it worked and I really thought, ‘That’s the ultimate way of making movies.’ “

Who on Earth keeps greenlighting Vin Diesel movies?

Mr. Potatoe Head will be returning to star and produce the third installment of the Chronicles Of Riddick franchise as will writer/director David Twohy according to reports in Variety.

There are no plot details available just yet but it’s said that the film will be closer to Pitch Black than it’s sequel. Though Chronicles was widely panned it made boatloads of money so we see the appeal of another entry, but will it be worth it?

The film is said to just be called Riddick and will have a carefully planned shooting schedule so as not to overlap with the planned sequels in the Fast and Furious series.

Twohy is also on writing duties for the upcoming but totally un-anticipated Brazillian Job; sequel to the Mark Wahlberg vehicle. So we’ll have to wait and see if this Riddick thing turns out before we get excited about boring heists in Brazil.

Pirates Of The Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides just keeps getting stranger.

Recent casting news, courtesy of HeatVisionBlog, indicates that Spanish beauty Penelope Cruz is in negotiations to join Johnny Depp on another adventure.

It’s not Cruz’s usual choice of movie but we’ll go with it, providing there are sexy scenes between her and Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow.

Though the juicy details of the plot are yet to be revealed, it’s going to be based around the quest for the Fountain of Youth with the occasional rumour of the infamous pirate Blackbeard being involved.

Terry Rossio and Ted Elliot return for writing duties with Rob Marshall stepping up to direct. The casting of Cruz could be down to Marshall given the fact that he just directed her in the musical Nine which also bagged Cruz an Oscar nom. A winning combination? Only time will tell.

Though better Cruz on board than Keira ‘Skeletor’ Knightley.