Renfield Trailer: Nicolas Cage And Nicholas Hoult Are In A Toxic Relationship

As a wise man once said: "I'm a vampire! I'm a vampire! I'm a vampire!" That man was Nicolas Cage, and in Chris McKay's upcoming horror-comedy "Renfield" he's playing not just any vampire, but the most famous vampire of all time: Dracula. If "What We Do in the Shadows" has taught us anything, it's that vampires do not like doing their own housework, so Cage will also be accompanied by his faithful familiar, the eponymous Renfield (Nicholas Hoult).

Speaking to Empire, Cage described the movie as having "a comedic, pop art attitude," and fans of the actor's notoriously unfettered (or "nouveau shamanic," as Cage himself describes it) approach to acting are eagerly looking forward to seeing him let loose as the classic movie monster. "It's a large studio picture so I wanted to play with: 'What can I get away with here?'" Cage told Empire. "If you're playing Dracula, you have a lot of latitude."

Now, we can finally get a little taste of Dracula and Renfield's rather unhealthy relationship, as Universal has dropped the first trailer for "Renfield."

Director Chris McKay described "Renfield" to Empire as the story of Dracula told "through the lens of Dracula as a sh***y boss." McKay is also known for directing "The Tomorrow War" and "The LEGO Batman Movie," as well as dozens of episodes of "Robot Chicken," and says his upcoming film is "going far away from what you would typically think of a Dracula movie." The script for "Renfield" was penned by "Community" and "Rick and Morty" writer Ryan Ridley.

In 2017, Universal Pictures proudly announced a whole new cinematic universe based around its collection of classic monsters called Dark Universe, which would kick off with the Tom Cruise-starring reboot of "The Mummy." Dark Universe didn't really pan out, but the studio has been doing some interesting takes on its most famous horror movies, including 2020's "The Invisible Man." 

At this point, a lot of people are suffering from cinematic universe fatigue and just want to be able to watch a movie without worrying about which post-credits scenes it's paying off, or what future sequels it's setting up, so perhaps the death of Dark Universe was for the best. A couple of hours spent with Nicolas Cage being chaotic and Nicholas Hoult suffering through it? Now that could be a whole lot of fun.

"Renfield" arrives in theaters on April 14, 2023.