Vampires have infested our pop culture. They’re in our books, on our television sets, and swarming across our movie screens. At the very least, this latest vampire project sounds more interesting than a Twilight sequel … on the other hand, everything sounds more interesting than a Twilight sequel.

Oscar winner Neil Jordan (The Crying Game, Michael Collins) has signed on for Byzantium, and he’s lining up Saoirse Ronan and Gemma Arterton as his vampire leads, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Moira Buffini’s original script tells the story of a mother-daughter team of vampires who sometimes pose as siblings to lure their prey. Jordan will reunite with longtime producer Stephen Woolley to help get this project off the ground, and they're eyeing an October start date for the production.

“I love the horror genre and we’ve been working on this for three or four years. I sent it to Neil and he liked the script,” Woolley told the trade.

The good thing about Jordan is he’s fully capable of circumventing the traps of any genre, which is why Ondine wasn’t a conventional mermaid movie and The Brave One was a much-better-than-average vengeance thriller. I’m excited to see what he can do with Ronan, who has delivered a pair of powerful performances for Joe Wright (most recently in Hanna) and no doubt will thrive under Jordan’s leadership and direction.