Trivia / Van Helsing

• Acting for Two: In addition to playing Frankenstein's Monster, Shuler Hensley also served as a stand-in for Mr. Hyde during the fight scene with Van Helsing.
• Actor Allusion: This is the second vampire-related film that Kate Beckinsale starred in.
• Actor-Inspired Element: Elena Anaya studied the movements of bats to incorporate them into Aleera's mannerisms, as she likes to bring aspects of animals into her characters. Likewise she felt Dracula and his brides wouldn't kiss like normal humans, and incorporated the bat elements there.
  "I wanted to imitate the posture of the hands, the use of nails and mouth, the piercing glance, the quietness that anticipates a sudden attack. And the bat's fly."
• Awesome, Dear Boy:
  • Josie Maran (Marishka) said as much about playing a vampire who can fly. It seems to be the case with the other actresses playing the Brides too. All three of them did their own stunts for the flying scenes.
  • Kate Beckinsale likewise immediately signed on after seeing the script, despite the director worrying she wouldn't want to do it after having just done Underworld (2003).
• Cast the Expert: Local circus performers in Prague were cast to perform for the masquerade ball scene, as was a soprano to sing at the start of said scene.
• Completely Different Title: Became Grave Man in India.
• Costume Backlash: Kate Beckinsale hated the corset she had to wear as Anna, saying she wanted to burn it all by the time filming was over.
• Deleted Scene: Aleera originally featured in the masquerade ball. Elena Anaya spent quite some time rehearsing the complicated dance routines—only for all her scenes to be cut. A photo exists of her in a sparkly red gown licking Anna's neck.
• Directed by Cast Member: The Latin American Spanish dub was directed by Salvador Delgado, who also voiced Count Dracula.
• DVD Commentary:
  • The crew commentary had Stephen Sommers and Bob Duscay.
  • The cast commentary had Richard Roxburgh, Shuler Hensley and Will Kemp.
• Dyeing for Your Art:
  • Hugh Jackman initially wore hair extensions, as his hair was still short at the start of production, but he grew it out during filming.
  • Kate Beckinsale gained 10 pounds to play Anna Valerious, to appear more robust and voluptuous, and highlight her curves.
  • Josie Maran is naturally brunette and lightened her hair to play Marishka. Although Elena Anaya is brunette too, she just wore a wig to play Aleera.
  • The make-up for the vampire brides took six hours to apply, in addition to the motion capture suits. The actresses also had to have long nails glued to their hands for months.
• Enforced Method Acting:
  • Silvia Colloca is terrified of heights and therefore was not acting during the scene where Verona and Aleera are hanging upside down and getting yelled at by Dracula.
  • Accidental example. While shooting Velkan's death scene, the rock underneath him was covered with spiders and they bit him quite ferociously.
  • Anna's nervousness during the masquerade ball was helped by the fact that it was the coldest location they filmed in, and Kate Beckinsale was performing in a sleeveless dress that left her freezing.
• Fake Brit: Australians Hugh Jackman and David Wenham use British accents for Van Helsing and Carl respectively.
• Fake Nationality:
  • British Kate Beckinsale and Will Kemp, American Kevin J O'Connor, and Australian Richard Roxburgh play Romanians.
  • The Brides' nationalities are never stated but Verona is obviously an Italian name, and her actress is likewise. Aleera comes from Arabic (although there is a French variant) and is played by a Spanish actress. Marishka is Hungarian in origin and her actress is American.
  • Tom Fisher is British playing the Undertaker. Oddly enough, he can be heard using his real accent in the opening, but a Transylvanian one in the present.
• The Foreign Subtitle:
  • Latin America: Van Helsing: Monster Hunter
  • Brazil: Van Helsing, the Monster Hunter
• In Memoriam: The film is dedicated to Stephen Sommers' late father.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Silvia Colloca (Verona) is terrified of heights. And yet she plays a vampire who spends more time in the air than she does on the ground.
• Multiple Languages, Same Voice Actor: Silvia Colloca voiced herself as Verona in the Italian dub of the movie.
• No Stunt Double:
  • Josie Maran, Silvia Colloca, and Elena Anaya did all of their own stunts for the flying scenes.
  • Richard Roxburgh did his own wire work stunts.
• Playing Against Type: David Wenham, who was seen portraying the very stoic Faramir less than a year ago, plays Friar Carl, a very nervous and scared character who helps to provide the film with very hilarious moments. This is pretty much his only playing against type character in a long time. He returned to play no-nonsense characters in films like 300, Australia or The Proposition.
• Production Posse: Kevin J. O'Connor, who frequently collaborates with Stephen Sommers, appears here as Igor. The role was written for him. Alan Silvestri returned to compose the music after The Mummy Returns, Bob Ducsay edited the film as with previous Sommers movies and Adrian Biddle did the cinematography (his last collaboration before his death the following year).
• Queer Character, Queer Actor: Aleera is Ambiguously Bi (and it's the attraction to men that's ambiguous!) while her actress Elena Anaya is openly lesbian.
• Real-Life Relative: In the Spanish dub, real life siblings Nuria and José Luis Mediavilla voiced both Anna and Velkan respectively. However, their father Pepe Mediavilla was the voice of Frankenstein's Monster.
• Romance on the Set: Silvia Colloca and Richard Roxburgh fell in love and got married the same year the movie came out, eventually having three children. Hilarious in Hindsight when you realize Dracula actually married one of his brides (Verona)! What's more, Colloca claims that Verona is the Queen Bride - so First Girl Wins after all.
• Similarly Named Works: Van Helsing is not related to this movie.
• Stillborn Franchise: There were plans for a sequel, a theme park ride, and a spinoff TV series called Transylvania, but they were scrapped in light of the lower-than-expected box office and mostly bad reviews. It still got an animated prequel, a video game and side-story comic book released the same year as the film.
  • The ride, at least, was sort of completed—the haunted house attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood was rethemed after the movie, replacing the Mummy one it had previously, before eventually being rethemed again to a more all-encompassing horror franchise motif. (The building itself has since been demolished and replaced with different rides and shops, though.)
• Throw It In!: Apparently the costumes for the dwergi henchmen had a nasty habit of catching fire if they got anywhere near a source of flame. The crew decided to run with this and included several shots of the dwergi running around the lab on fire.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The Creature from the Black Lagoon was originally going to be the one guarding the werewolf cure in Dracula's castle. This apparently would have prevented Igor's Disney Villain Death by ripping his face off when it entered the scene.
  • Also, the storyboard from that scene refer to Anna as "Mina", implying she was originally meant to be Mina Harker.
  • Michael Bay was attached to direct, but opted to make The Island (2005) instead.
  • Silvia Colloca recalls a scene between the Brides before the village attack where Marishka would suggest just letting the werewolf kill everyone, and Verona responds "never trust a man to do a woman's job".
  • The part of Aleera was much smaller originally, but Stephen Summers was impressed with Elena Anaya and added more scenes for her as the shoot went on.
  • Van Helsing was originally going to be fully nude when he transforms back from being a werewolf, but they eventually decided it would be too distracting. The nude shot was still used in Van Helsing crying over Anna's body, but with CGI pants added in.
  • There were plans for an ambitious ride at Universal's Islands of Adventure, utilizing vehicles held by giant mechanical arms. The plans were scuttled when the movie underperformed, but the technology was eventually used for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, which took the spot the Van Helsing ride would have had.
  • There were plans for a modern day reboot back in 2012 with Tom Cruise playing the character as well as producing it before Cruise left the film in 2015 to do The Mummy (2017) instead.
• Writing Around Trademarks: Inverted. The producers specifically changed Van Helsing's first name from Abraham to Gabriel so they could hold onto certain rights for the character. Also because Stephen Sommers didn't think he could have a lead with Abraham as a first name.

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