Millennium/Nu Image Entertainment was hoping they have produced another hit on the scale of The Expendables when Conan the Barbarian opened in theaters last weekend. Instead they were rewarded with a paltry $10 million opening weekend, good enough only for 4th place and not even close to a solid return on their $90 million investment into the project. So, headed back to the drawing board, the production company is moving forward with a project that's a lot more similar to The Expendables, with the added bonus of a vampire tie-in.

Imagine if Martin Sheen had traveled into the heart of darkness in Apocalypse Now to find not crazy Marlon Brando, but a vampire. Yes, really. According to THR the spec from Paul Sloan centers on a 'team of mercenaries" who undertake that exact million in Cambodia, eventually confronting "the dark force of a vampire." It's hard to imagine an idea that incorporated more trendy movie elements, though I guess Sloan could also work in a superhero or a child with magic powers if he really put his mind to it.

Sloan is actually better known for his career as an actor in low-budget movies like The Deported and Stiletto, which he also wrote-- you know it's a campy low-budget action movie because it stars Stana Katic and Michael Biehn. Based on that pedigree it seems unlikely Millennium will round up an all-star cast on the level with The Expendables, but that might not matter-- that movie has made these kind of mercenary stories popular again, and since it seems unlikely to cost as much as Conan, they can get their money's worth even if it is a smaller sized hit.