He's been in the shadow of Dracula for more than 70 years of cinema, but thanks to the fertile imagination of writer-director Stephen Sommers, the vampire hunter "Van Helsing" is about to put the fear in the Prince of Darkness, as well as two other classic movie characters -- Frankenstein's monster and the Wolfman.

Trading in Wolverine's hackles and steely claws for a flowing mane, Tojo blades and a crossbow, Hugh Jackman will be hitting the big screen in May as the title character, taking on Dracula (Richard Roxburgh) and a host of other monsters. Sommers, of course, is the filmmaker who unwrapped a whole new world of possibilities for another famed Universal monster, and making "The Mummy" and "The Mummy Returns" blockbuster hits in 1999 and 2001, respectively.

In a recent @ The Movies interview, Sommers gave me some early insight into what we can expect from the characters come May.

As the title suggests, "Van Helsing" isn't so much about the monsters but the man who is hunting them. But while generations of filmgoers have seen several different incarnations of Dracula, Frankenstein's monster and the Wolfman, Van Helsing's appearances are fewer and far between.

"I especially love the Van Helsing character in the original 'Dracula' with Bela Lugosi," Sommers told me of the late Edward Van Sloan's portrayal. "I love this guy's confidence, worldliness and intelligence, but I thought, I have to make him different because no one really knows him, so I can play with him."

To begin with, Sommers re-named the character Gabriel and examined his origins from there.

"I don't like Abraham as a name -- period. A leading guy can't be named Abraham, " Sommers said, musingly. "Then I thought, 'Let's make him younger, let's make him from his early days or make him a younger brother or whatever. I'm going to go off and play with it. Since I've always been fascinated with the Knights Templar and the Masons, I thought, 'What if Van Helsing worked for this sacred ancient religious society, made up for all religions in the world?'"

What he got for pre-dating Van Sloan's character was a dashing leading man in Jackman, who well proved with his "X-Men" movie gigs that he had the wherewithal to embodies the mystery of Van Helsing's origins.

"Hugh mentioned to me that Wolverine had the same sort of problem and since I didn't see the second 'X-Men' until halfway of shooting 'Van Helsing,'" Sommers said. "But they are very dissimilar. Wolverine is genetically engineered and my character is more biblical, if you will."

Like the "The Mummy" and "The Mummy Returns," Sommers is creating "Van Helsing" under the auspices of Universal Studios, the same studio that gave us "Frankenstein," "Dracula," "The Wolfman," "The Mummy" and several other monster movie classics.

And like he did with the modern "Mummy" movies, Sommers is taking the monsters in "Van Helsing" to a whole new level. But purists shouldn't be alarmed -- while the creatures in the film are being re-imagined, classic elements will definitely be present.

"Frankenstein's monster is so iconographic, so my creature designers spent many, many months designing him," Sommers explained. "I said, 'OK, he has to have a flat head, blots on his neck and Doc Martens on his feet, but other that -- we can play with him.'"

So keeping those traditional Frankenstein monster elements intact, Sommers decided to ground the rest of the design of the new creature, played by Shuler Hensley, in reality.

"I've seen pictures of other Frankensteins besides Boris Karloff's and they're always lame because they're always covered in stitches," Sommers said. "So, I'm like, 'If scientists could actually take several men, stitch all of their organs together and bring this thing back to life, don't you think sutures would be the real piece of cake?' I don't think stitches would be the hard part."

Sommers applied the same principal for the Wolfman, played by Will Kemp in the film.

"I've seen the Wolfman spouting hair -- and that's been done a million times -- so I had to do something different there," the writer-director said. "So my answer for the Wolfman, as well as all these characters, is that none of them are monsters but just people with some very bad problems. So, the Wolfman, specifically, is not comfortable in his own skin, like an alcoholic or a drug addict or somebody like that. He can be a real nice guy during the day -- but when the full moon comes out and his demons come out, he's not comfortable in his own skin so he has to rip it off. He's revealing the inner-monster, if you will."

While Sommers is re-imagining the classic character's looks and shifting the action-adventure and special effects elements into overdrive, he's remaining faithful to the classics insofar as the tragic personas of the creatures.

"No one is going to think going into this movie that they are going to come out loving Frankenstein, and not in a cheap of cheesy way at all -- he's really an angry, vicious guy -- a beast," Sommers said. "But when you think of the originals, they were scary melodramas. The characters were so deep. I always felt as badly for Frankenstein as I did for his victims because, like Lenny in Steinbeck's 'Mice and Men,' he's a man-child. I've always found that fascinating."

Whether it's for the narrative and the characters, or the sets or designs of the creatures, Sommers has proved before, that fascination with the material has parlayed into some thoroughly entertaining movies. Hensley, who talked with me about Van Helsing in a separate preview interview, said he can't get enough of the director's enthusiasm.

"The wonderful thing about Stephen, is that he, in essence, is this kid in an adult body," Hensley said. "That's how he approaches his films. It's so obvious that he's absolutely, 100 percent about it all of the time. I've never met anyone like him. That's what he lives to do -- and it shows."

"Van Helsing," which also stars Kate Beckinsale, David Wenham, Kevin J. O'Connor, Josie Maran, Elena Anaya and Silvia Colloca, opens in theaters May 7.

Coming In May: Complete interactive coverage of the film, including more interviews, movie clips, trivia and a "Van Helsing" contest from Sideshow Collectibles.

More Info:
Official 'Van Helsing' Movie Web Site
Official Shuler Hensley Web Site