Transylvania (lost production materials for unproduced TV series; 2004)
Theatrical poster for Van Helsing.
Status: Lost
This article has been tagged as Needing work due to its lack of content.
Transylvania was a proposed 2004 TV series that would have reused many of the props and sets from the 2004 action-adventure film Van Helsing. It entered pre-production before the film's release, but its development was halted after Van Helsing had a lower-than-expected box office performance. Few plot or story details were released and no images, episode outlines or concept art has surfaced.
Background
In the lead-up to Universal Studios' release of the 2004 film Van Helsing, they had also planned to produce a TV series called Transylvania, which would air on NBC (which had recently been acquired by Universal). The sets for the film's Romanian village were reportedly very expensive, and Universal viewed the TV series as a means of getting further use out of the estimated $150 million they had invested into the film's production.[1]
The show would center around a Wild West sheriff who is sent to a village in Eastern Europe in order to fight against the monsters and supernatural phenomena that have been plaguing the area. The TV show would have continued the involvement of Van Helsing's director and producer Stephen Sommers, as well as writer David Fury and editor Bob Ducsay.[2]
While the film had healthy box office earnings, it did not meet Universal's expectations, and plans for the show were scrapped in May 2004, shortly after Van Helsing's theatrical release.[3]
Availability
It's not clear if a pilot was ever shot, but no script or pre-production materials have ever been made public.