An ex-Time Lord and a wannabe superhero to take on vampires

David Tennant, the former Doctor from hit sci-fi TV show Doctor Who; and current go-to guy for anything requiring a comic-voiced geek Christopher Mintz-Plasse have joined the remake of the vampire-next-door comedy-horror, Fright Night.

Set in Las Vegas, Fright Night sees teenager Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin) convinced his neighbor Jerry Dandrige (Colin Farrell) is a vampire when his mother (Toni Collette) falls under his spell.

HeatVision is reporting that Tennant, whose acting life for the past five years has mainly consisted of time-travel via a blue police box (but who was briefly attached to Burke and Hare before Andy Serkis) is set to play Peter Vincent (named after Peter Cushing and Vincent Price), the useless vampire-killer, movie star and host of local, late-night TV show Fright Night (the role was played by Roddy McDowall first time around). This will be Tennant’s first proper US release (except for his smallish part in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) so this reporter is pleased to see there is life after the TARDIS. (Fun fact: At the end of the original movie Peter continues Fright Night but moves from covering vampires to aliens, something Tennant is already familiar with.)

Mintz-Plasse will take on the role of “Evil” Ed Thompson (originally played by Stephen Geoffreys), Charley’s disbelieving friend who feels snubbed by Charley when he leaves his nerdy past behind to pursue his vampire neighbor. In retaliation, Evil Ed to join Jerry’s coven. Mintz-Plasse has already shown promise with great performances in Superbad and Kick-Ass (not to mention Role Models and Year One as well as voicework on How to Train your Dragon and Marmaduke).

The original turned out to be a surprise hit at the box office making $6,118,543 on opening weekend and taking a domestic gross of $24,922,237. It had the highest box-office takings of any horror film released in the summer of 1985, and the second highest-grossing horror film of the whole year, only bested by A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge. It went on to win three Saturn Awards for Best Horror Film, Best Supporting Actor and Best Writing; a Dario Argento Award and a Critics’ Award at Fantasporto in 1986.

Made by DreamWorks and released through Disney, Fright Night will be directed by Craig Gillespie and written by Tom Holland and Marti Noxon. Work is due to start next month with the film prospectively getting a PG-13 rating and a release in 2011.