It’s not exactly surprising when a vampire is needed, Willem Dafoe gets a call. He’s just got that…vampirical….look about him. He’s previously played a vampire in Daybreakers and Shadow of the Vampire. Not content to rest on those blood drinking laurels, he’s going to join John C. Reilly as a member of the undead in Cirque du Freak.

Shock Till You Drop is reporting that Dafoe is the latest to join the cast for the 2009 horror-fantasy adaptation. He will play Gavner Purl. As we’ve been noting the last few months, Reilly and Dafoe will be joined by Ken Watanabe, Salma Hayek, Jane Krakowski, Orlando Jones, Josh Hutcherson and Patrick Fugit.

Newcomer Chris Massoglia will play Darren Shan who becomes a vampire’s assistant to help save his best friend. The plot sounds uninteresting to me, but the cast is great and the script was written by Brian Helgeland, who is usually reliable. Paul Weitz is directing and it looks like we can all get the crap scared out of us in 2009.