Vampire Academy Film is On Its Way! Woot!

The YA vampire series, Vampire Academy, by Richelle Mead, has it all; action, romance, hot young vampires, and even some evil vampire action for the classicists in the audience. Plus, there are some nifty references to actual vampire folklore, –you don’t see much of that anymore, –with the evil Strigoi, and the happy-go-lucky Moroi. There are five books in the series so far, and a sixth coming soon. The sixth, Last Sacrifice, will be the last novel following Rose Hathaway, the main character of the series. After that, there’ll be a spin-off series that takes place in the same Vampire Academy universe.

So does this mean we may have six Vampire Academy films to look forward to? I doubt it, and this is why: because for some reason, there hasn’t been any news about a Cirque du Freak sequel. That disturbs me; the movie had a great cast, it was a terrific story, was so much fun to watch, visually exciting, etc., ad nauseum, –but no one cared about following it up? That sucks! And we’re not saying that Vampire Academy won’t make it, but it seems like the trend of the season is a lot of first-book-in-the-series-turned-into-a-hopeful-film stuff. Percy Jackson, Cirque du Freak, etc., –and now Vampire Academy?

So far, it does have a lot of promise though; Don Murphy, as in the man who gets mad credits for Transformers, Apt Pupil, and Natural Born Killers, that guy… He’s the one who signed on to Vampire Academy. PR Newswire reports:

“Producer Don Murphy known for such films as “Natural Born Killers,” “Apt Pupil,” and the highly successful “Transformers” franchise, teams with Producer Michael Preger to bring Richelle Mead’s epic vampire saga “Vampire Academy” to the screen.

“I’ve long admired Don’s career and the many film projects he’s been involved with,” comments Preger. “I believe he can bring an influence to the mix that will be both action centric and edgy. We want the young male audience onboard with this project and we believe Mead has offered up a universe with which to accomplish that.”

“The joy of these books is that in the wake of ‘Twilight’ they offer a chance to create a movie franchise that guys will want to see as well as girls,” states Murphy. “Michael and I plan on positioning the films as something both sexes will enjoy together, expanding the genre of sexy young vampires to a whole new audience.  We are beginning discussions with studios immediately. “

“Vampire Academy” debuted on the New York Times Bestsellers list in 2007 and continues to trend higher with readers and critics alike with each new book in the series. “Vampire Academy” has now been published in 34 countries including the United Kingdom and Australia. The sixth and final installment of the series is scheduled for release in December 2010.

Preger’s credits include the 2009 BBC1 hit mini-series “Day of the Triffids” and Universal Studio’s “John Carpenter’s Village of the Damned”.”

I think Murphy is capable of really rocking this film, and with its awesome story, and the vampire popularity right now, it’ll probably make a ton of money. But its chances of franchise are pretty minimal. Still! It gives us another major money vampire movie to look forward to.