Richelle Mead Talks Vampire Academy Feature Film, Casting News

Posted on February 2, 2013

Richelle Mead blogs about the just-announced feature film version of her New York Times bestselling young adult series, Vampire Academy. The new film will be called Vampire Academy: Blood Sisters. It will star Zoey Deutch (Beautiful Creatures) as Rose and Australian actress Lucy Fry as Lissa. Russian actor Danila Kozlovski (We Are From The Future) will play Dimitri.

Richelle addresses the amount of input she's had on casting and the film saying that although the production company does not need to ask her permission under the contract, "Preger Entertainment and their team have been AWESOME about keeping me in the loop and asking my opinions. Do I get ultimate say? No, but they've shown me script and actor choices and asked for my opinions, which is so cool because believe me when I say, a lot of authors don't get that consideration. I'm super lucky."

The books have a massive following and the film's official Facebook page already has more than 250,000 followers. Naturally, that leads to some reader angst about casting. Richelle addresses those casting fears of fans saying, "I have it on good authority from friends who've worked with the lovely Zoey Deutch that she's an amazing actress. And I think it's awesome that they chose a Russian for Dimitri! I mean, I wouldn't know the difference, but I'd hate it if real Russians saw the movie and were like, "That guy is obviously fake." As for Lucy Fry, she certainly looks the part, and it's fun that she's Australian, since that's one of VA's biggest fan bases. The international cast reflects VA's international following."

Richelle reminds readers about The Hunger Games casting: "Remember when Jennifer Lawrence was cast as Katniss, and people were ready to riot? Then the movie team dyed her hair and gave her a bow, and she was awesome. That's how this is going to pan out too, except no bow. I'm sure they'll grow out Danila's hair, though."

The film already has good buzz. Deadline reports that Daniel Waters, who wrote cult black comedy Heathers has written the script and his brother Mark Waters, who directed Mean Girls is directing. With a team like that, what's not to like? Shooting will start this summer.