Australian actor Sam Worthington is to play the lead in the new thriller Dracula: Year Zero.

The film combines the myth of vampire Dracula with the real life historical character Prince Vlad of Transylvania.

Encore magazine reports that Avatar star Worthington is set to play the prince who is believed to have been the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

The Universal Pictures project is due to be shot in Australia next year. [Source]

Sam Worthington is going Down Under — from where he hails — to play a journalist/photographer in ‘Drift,’ an $11 million surfing drama set in the town of Margaret River, Australia, a hotbed for world-class surfers.

According to TheWrap, the film is inspired by a true story and will depict how surfing has gone from a individualistic pastime to a global sports industry.

Worthington, who describes himself as a lifelong surfer, is looking forward to returning to West Australia, “and to go back there and put something back into my home town is something I am really looking forward to.”

Production is expected to begin during the next Australian autumn (America’s spring) in order to take advantage of big waves, moodier skies and the Margaret River Pro Surfing Event. [Source]

Sam Worthington has remained consistently busy since putting together back-to-back blockbusters like “Terminator: Salvation,” “Avatar” and “Clash of the Titans.” He currently has three pictures in various stages of post-production, including John Madden’s “The Debt,” which will be at the Toronto International Film Festival. And he has seven projects in development, according to IMDB.

One of them, however, has jumped to the front of the line.

Production Weekly tweeted this afternoon that Worthington will begin filming Asger Leth’s heist thriller “Man On a Ledge” in October.

The production will be filmed in Miami. Summit Entertainment reportedly will distribute the film, which is about a ex-cop (Worthington) threatening to jump from a ledge who must be talked down by a female psychologist. The man’s motives, however, are not what they seem.

Stay tuned for more “Ledge” news, including which female star will be cast alongside Worthington for Leth’s film. [Source]

Keira Knightley and Sam Worthington are slated to be the closing attractions at September’s Toronto International Film Festival.

“Pirates of the Caribbean” actress Knightley and “Avatar” leading man Worthington star alongside Eva Mendes in the marital drama “Last Night,” announced Tuesday as the closing-night film for the festival, which runs Sept. 9-19.

Other premieres newly added to the lineup include director Clint Eastwood’s “Hereafter,” a drama about mortality starring Matt Damon; Dustin Lance Black’s “What’s Wrong With Virginia,” with Jennifer Connelly as a mentally troubled woman whose son tosses a wrench into the election campaign of a local politician (Ed Harris); and Dan Rush’s “Everything Must Go,” featuring Will Ferrell as a motivational speaker staging a colossal lawn sale after his life falls apart.

Director Danny Boyle, whose “Slumdog Millionaire” played Toronto in 2008 and went on to win best picture at the Academy Awards, returns to the festival with “127 Hours,” a mountain-climbing survival tale starring James Franco.

Also in the lineup: Casey Affleck’s documentary “I’m Still Here,” chronicling brother-in-law Joaquin Phoenix’s retirement from acting to pursue a hip-hop music career; Matt Reeves’ “Let Me In,” starring Chloe Moretz (“Kick-Ass”) in an English-language remake of the vampire tale “Let the Right One In”; Mitch Glazer’s “Passion Play,” with Mickey Rourke, Megan Fox and Bill Murray in the story of a down-and-out jazz trumpeter and a woman born with wings who works as a carnival sideshow attraction; and John Carpenter’s “The Ward,” featuring Amber Heard as a woman tormented by evil forces in a mental institution.

A major showcase for upcoming films, the Toronto festival has featured such Oscar winners as “American Beauty,” “Crash,” “The Last King of Scotland” and “Brokeback Mountain.”  [Source]

‘Avatar’ star Sam Worthington has expressed a desire to star in a reboot of the 1985 Arnold Schwarzenegger hit ‘Commando’.

After portraying a humanoid in ‘Terminator Salvation’ and an alien in ‘Avatar’, Worthington is now wanting to turn himself into this generation’s Schwarzenegger, a statement said.

 Worthington is interested in landing the lead role in the forthcoming 20th Century Fox production. The action-thriller will be written and directed by David Ayers. [Source]

Sam Worthington is to play the lead in spooky new thriller Dracula: Year Zero.

The film combines the myth of vampire Dracula with the real-life historical character Prince Vlad of Transylvania.

Avatar star Sam is to play Prince Vlad, who is believed to have been the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Encore magazine reports.

The 34-year-old Australian actor, who shot to fame after starring in Avatar and Clash Of The Titans, is to return home for filming as the Universal Pictures project is due to be shot in Australia next year.

The film, directed by Dark City’s Alex Proyas, follows Prince Vlad the Impaler as he battles the Turks and tries to stop them taking all the young male children, including his own, after they invade Transylvania.

Producer Mike De Luca has said: “Every generation owns their own version of the vampire myth… but I think it’s always right for reinvention.” [Source]