The thing I love about vampire movies is that you can pretty much transform any film into a vampire story. Hell, it can even be a straightforward romantic comedy, then just add in a bloodsucker for the film’s final act and you have a shot at a good vampire movie. Catch the audience unawares, you know? Frankly, I think more television shows need to consider vampirism as a means to get out of contorted storylines.

The result is just about anyone can do a vampire movie, and in the case of The Bleeding just about anyone is. The cast, announced through Variety involves an eclectic mix, including Vinnie Jones X-Men: The Last Stand, Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs), Armand Assante (American Gangster), rapper DMX, and Michael Matthias (the upcoming The Box). If that’s not a bizarre mix, I don’t know what is.

The cast announcement doesn’t include details on what role each actor will be playing, but the story is about an ex-Army Ranger who hunts down his parents killer, only to discover a family of vampires in a nightclub. Sounds kind of like From Dusk Till Dawn or my fictitious romantic comedy above where the story will start out as one thing and switch to another. My money’s on Jones to play the ex-Army Ranger, with Assente playing some sort of leader to the vampires. I could be wrong though.

Production starts next month on The Bleeding which will be filming in North Carolina.