Director Stephen Sommers talks about making VAN HELSING!

So why make a movie with the three monsters?

"After my previous five movies I decided that my impetus is to write something very small. Two people talking on a beach. I didn’t want to do any more special effects or action. I’m driving myself to an early grave! These movies are way too hard! I don’t want to do this anymore!

"Then I thought, I had so much fun with the Mummy movies. I think I was watching Frankenstein one night, and I started thinking ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if…?’ It wasn’t planned. The studio didn’t come to me. They didn’t ask me to do this. I think in their heads, Coppola made a really good Dracula – as far as I’m concerned, a fantastic Dracula. But I love these sorts of movies and this sort of stuff. It’s like I can’t get away from it. So then I started thinking, maybe all three of them could be in a movie together."

Although Sommers uses a fair bit of Shelley’s original tale for his take on Frankenstein, he’s strayed far from Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Dracula’s nemesis Van Helsing is not the angry wrinkly we’re used to, but a young ass-kicking hero.

"I call him Gabriel," says Sommers. "I think of him as Van Helsing’s younger brother. For one thing, I don’t like the name Abraham. I can’t name my lead character Abraham. That isn’t going to cut it."

This, he explains, is not a straight literary adaptation. "I use a bit of everything. I read all the books and watched all the movies. I pick what I need and what I like. Also, we learn all the rules so we can break the monsters. Dracula is the source of all vampires. You can’t kill him with a crucifix or a stake in the heart. Nobody knows how to kill Dracula." He pauses. "Well, he doesn’t like sunlight…!"

There is, however, an homage to James Whale’s Frankenstein. "The whole opening sequence is going to be in black and white," Sommers says. "I love that feel, and I thought this is a perfect movie to do that. Start with that old black-and-white logo. People remember movies if they have that black and white feel to it."

Sommers has assembled a great cast for the film. Hugh Jackman stars as the eponymous hero, while Kate Beckinsale plays his Gypsy love interest. As usual, his mate Kevin O’Connor, who always appears in his films, has a part (he’s Igor) but the rest of the cast were assembled in an eclectic manner.

"As soon as you turn in a script, someone at the studio comes to you with a list of a hundred people who can play the role, however inappropriate!" Sommers explains. ‘If it’s a male lead, they’ll give you every name from the age of 18 to 55. Race, colour, creed doesn’t matter. You just look at this whole thing wondering, ‘What in the…?" How could he possibly play this? Van Helsing is dark and mysterious! He has to be a man. There are a lot of good actors out there, but there are a lot of boys. There are very few men. There’s Ewan McGregor, there’s Viggo Mortensen, and there’s Hugh – great actors who can really pull this stuff off. I’d heard so much about Hugh – not that I’d heard anything in a bad way about Ewan or Viggo – but I love to work with nice people. I know some people who knew Hugh and they said, ‘God, he’s the greatest guy!’ I’m almost more interested in how nice a person is than in how great an actor they are. These movies are so hard, I only want to work with nice people!"

Similarly, Sommers didn’t even audition Kate Beckinsale: he just sent her the script.

As you might expect from the man behind The Mummy Returns, there will be a lot of costly CGI in the film. This film looks to be free of the CG-overkill that drowned The Mummy Returns in PlayStation graphics. "I’d rather work with real actors," Sommers says. "Unfortunately, I write this stuff. I gotta sit down and force myself to write a romantic comedy! I’d rather work with actors. But then CG is…terrifying. Here we have Richard Roxburgh as Dracula – but Dracula is also a CG monster. I hold off his other persona until the third act. This is one thing you have to think of going in, having lead guys encased in something-or-other. Most good actors nix that right away. So I came up with some interesting ways to get them in and out of ‘costume,’ if you will. I like watching CG creatures fight for, like, eight to ten seconds and then it’s, ‘Come on, let’s get on with something!’ Keep it interesting."