Hellsing: Amazon & John Wick Writer Adapting Japanese Manga into Film

March 5, 2021

According to Deadline, Amazon Studios is in the process of developing a live-action film adaptation of Hellsing, based on Kouta Hirano’s popular action-horror manga of the same name. John Wick scribe Derek Kolstad has officially signed on to the project to pen and executive produce the adaptation.

“Ever since my brother introduced me to the Hellsing manga and anime some years ago, I’ve been obsessed with adapting it,” Kolstad said. “And when Mike Callaghan and his team managed to secure the rights to then partner us up with Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Amazon, I mean -damn, dude- this is a dream.”

Pick up a copy of the first volume here!

The Hellsing film is the latest addition to Kolstad’s growing list of projects including the highly-anticipated fourth installment to John Wick; The Man From Nowhere English remake; My Friend Pedro series; and Constantin Films’ film adaptation of the Just Cause video game. His next writing projects are the upcoming MCU series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Universal’s action-thriller Nobody which are both set to be released this month.

Hellsing was written and illustrated by Kouta Hirano. It tells a reimagined story of Dracula where it centered around Alucard, a special agent bound to The Hellsing Organization, under the leadership of Integra Hellsing, great-granddaughter of Abraham Van Hellsing, to aid them in their mission to protect England and the world from vampires, ghouls, and other supernatural threats. The manga also focuses on Hellsing’s newest recruit, a female ex-police officer named Seras Victoria.

The original manga series was first serialized in Shōnen Gahōsha’s Japanese manga magazine called Young King OURS from 1997-2008. Later on, it was licensed for an English language release by Dark Horse Comics. Hirano had also released a prequel manga series to Hellsing titled The Dawn which was published in special editions of Young King OURS from 2001 to 2009. The manga was also adapted into a 10-episode anime series by Gonzo which ran on-air from 2001-2002.

“I’ve always loved the vampire genre, especially when a creator is able to put their own unique spin on it, so when Derek introduced me to Alucard and the Hellsing Organization, I knew we had something special in that tradition,” producer Mike Callaghan said. “Kouta Hirano’s gonzo reimagining of the Dracula-Van Helsing mythology is an exhilarating, quirky mashup of action and horror that’s unlike anything we’ve seen before. We are incredibly excited to partner with Brian and Fred at Automatik and that Amazon is on board to help us bring the wit and madness of ‘Hellsing’ to life on screen.”

The live-action Hellsing film will be produced by Automatik’s Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Fred Berger along with Mike Callaghan and Reuben Liber for Ranger 7 Films. Executive producers are Automatik’s Gemma Levinson, Tetsu Fujimura of Filosophia, India Osborne, Pierre Buffin, and Jason Speer with Soluble Fish Productions’ Jason Lust set to produce.