There are no capes and there is no spandex in Dampyr, the fantasy horror film by Italian director Riccardo Chemello. But the English-language feature, which has been a surprise hit on Netflix, is the first entry in what you could call the Bonelli Cinematic Universe.
The vampire-hunter tale, starring Wade Briggs, Stuart Martin, Frida Gustavsson, Sebastian Croft, David Morrissey and Luke Roberts, is the first of a new wave of comic-book adaptations from Bonelli Entertainment, the Italian publisher billed as Italy’s answer to Marvel.
The film, which cracked the top 3 on Netflix’s US service, is the origin story of Harlan Draka, a Serbian dampyr, or half-breed offspring of a vampire dad and human mother, whose blood has the power to kill the undead. Draka was first introduced to Italian comic fans 20 years ago — the collapse of the former Yugoslavia and the 1990s Balkan war is the comic’s real-life subtext — and his adventures fighting the armies of the night have been detailed in some 300 issues of the long-running series, published by Sergio Bonelli Editore.
Wade Briggs stars in Bonelli Entertainment’s comic book adaptation ‘Dampyr.’
The film, directed by Riccardo Chemello, is the first of Bonelli’s attempts to turn its vast library of original characters and comic-book storylines into a new fictional universe. Instead of Iron Man or the Hulk, Bonelli’s back catalog features tales peopled with human characters. There’s the frontier cowboy Tex Willer. Paranormal investigator Dylan Dog. Hard-boiled detective Nick Raider. Sci-fi crime fighter Nathan Never. Beloved for decades in Italy, and across much of the world where Bonelli comics are published, from Eastern Europe to South America, some of these characters have appeared in cameos in U.S. series. Dylan Dog once teamed up with Batman in a story arc in the DC comics. Zagor, a sort of Tarzan character with a Native American spin, turned up in a few issues of Flash Gordon.
But Dampyr, adapted by Alberto Ostini, Giovanni Masi, Mauro Uzzeo from the original characters created by Mauro Boselli and Maurizio Colombomarks Bonelli’s first entry into the international film space. The film is a co-production with Eagle Pictures and Brandon Box and distributed in North America by Sony Pictures.
The film’s success on Netflix was a surprise, even for Bonelli. Dampyr received a frosty reception from devotee fans when it was unveiled at the Italian Comics & Games festival in Lucca last year and was a box office flop in Italy, grossing just $377,000 (€350,000). But Dampyr was always intended for the English-language market. And, as its performance on Netflix showed, Bonelli’s bet paid off.
“We knew it [would work],” says Michele Masiero, editor-in-chief of Sergio Bonelli Editore. “Certainly what is happening now exceeds all our wildest expectations.”
In its first weekend, Dampyr was the number 3 film on Netflix USA, ahead of Minions, David Fincher’s The Killer starring Michael Fassbender. Above Sony’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
“Of the other nine titles in the top 10, the cheapest cost $100 million,” says Bonelli Entertainment director Vincenzo Sarno. “Our film cost €15 million [$16 million].”
The success of Dampyr should help several in-development projects from the burgeoning Bonelli Cinema Universe. Next up is a TV series on Dylan Dog that Saw creator James Wan is set to helm. The series will follow the adventures of the titular “investigator of nightmares,” who unravels occult mysteries from the terrifying (zombie invasions) to the ridiculous (haunted refrigerators), passing parallel worlds to do so. While there are plenty of fantastic and supernatural elements, the series, like everything in the BCU, is grounded in human characters. No capes allowed.
“Superheroes with problems have been done, we wanted to portray ordinary men with super-problems, which we found it more interesting,” says Dampyr director Chemello.
“The desire,” notes Sarno, “was to reach a wider audience without losing the Bonelli style, building an editorial line that would unite the legacy of our publishing house with the tradition of Italian genre films, blend them and take them out to the world. And Sony, a major studio that understands this mission and embraces it, was the first step toward a success that still stuns us.”
‘Dragonero,’ an animated series based on a Bonelli comic, runs on the Italian network RAI.
Back in Italy, public broadcaster RAI has renewed Dragonero, a series adaptation of a Bonelli fantasy comic, for a second season.
“This isn’t just about one film or just about Bonelli, it’s about this entire genre [of Italian comics],” says Sarno. “It’s a bet on a European vision that has been validated by the market.”
Bonelli’s bets haven’t always worked out. The 2010 Dylan Dog adaptation from Canadian director Kevin Munroe — Bonelli licensed the rights to the comic — bombed. A planned Nathan Never film got lost in development hell.
“We’d like to forget that period,” says Sarno, “it was not a successful experiment.”
The change came when Bonelli began to develop its adaptations in-house, producing through Bonelli Entertainment and keeping projects closer to the spirit of the original Italian comics.
For Dampyr, they bet big on Chemello, a 29-year-old former parkour champion whose previous filmmaking experience was doing commercials for Red Bull.
“This genre is designed for a young audience in mind,” says Sarno, “so you have to have courage to bet on [a young director’s] vision.”
The original idea was for a Dampyr trilogy, which, given the first film’s success, is looking more and more likely.
But Sarno has grander plans. The final scene of Dampyr, showing Draka’s gothic library, is packed with easter eggs teasing future BCU projects. In one corner you see Zagor’s axe in a shrine. There’s a map of Erondar, the Dragonero empire, on the wall. Nathan Never’s ray gun with a robotic hand in a display case.
Wan’s Dylan Dog series is deep into pre-production. Bonelli announced a Martin Mystère animated series, about an adventurous archaeologist, at Lucca this year. (The French-language Martin Mystery series, which ran from 2003-2006 was based on the same comic.)
On his plans for Nathan Never, Sarno is cryptic. He’s been dreaming for years of a film adaptation of the sci-fi character, who in the long-running comic “has met most of the other heroes of the BCU,” making him an ideal figure to unite “the various planets of our universe.” But Sarno refused to be drawn on whether he’ll turn up in a series, a feature film or as a character in an adaptation of another comic. “I’ve already talked too much,” he says.
Over the next five years, Sarno and Bonelli hope to have built the scaffolding of the BCU, an “Italian structure that collaborates permanently with US and British talent.”
Scott Roxborough
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