Without nearly as much fanfare as their fellow YA adaptations, the three leads of the upcoming adaptation of Richelle Mead series “Vampire Academy” were announced today via the film’s official Facebook. The most recognizable of the trio is Zoey Deutch, who will also play the lead character Rose Hathaway, and she’ll be joined by Australian actress Lucy Fry in the role of Vasilisa “Lissa” Dragomir, Rose’s best friend and Danila Kozlovsky as Dimitri Belikov, the inevitable love interest.
“Mean Girls” director Mark Waters is directing the film – to be retitled “Vampire Academy: Blood Sisters” since “Vampire Academy” is pretty embarrassing on its own in this post-Twilight world – written by his brother Dan Waters (“Heathers”). Deutch’s Rose is a dhampir, or half-vampire trained to protect Moroi, a race of peaceful, benevolent and mortal vampires from the Strigoi – evil, undead vampires pop culture is probably more familiar with. She plays bodyguard to her best friend Lissa, who is a Moroi princess. They have fled St. Vladimir’s Academy (the titular Vampire Academy where vampires and half-vampires train and learn to find their place in the world) but are forced to return, and that is when they encounter dhampir Dimitri, who becomes Rose’s instructor and, naturally, her love interest. There is franchise potential here, as Mead has written six books following Rose, and there is also a spinoff series for a character introduced later in the series. Filming on the first movie will begin in early summer.
Deutch is racking up those YA adaptation franchises, as she’ll soon be seen in the role of Emily in Richard LaGravanese’s adaptation of “Beautiful Creatures.” She was a regular on short-lived CW series “Ringer”, where she played Sarah Michelle Gellar’s stepdaughter. Aussie Fry most recently appeared on TV series “Lightning Point” in her native country. Moscow-born Kozlovski is most known for Russian-language films “We Are From the Future” and “Soulless”, but is also fluent in English.








