Little Dustin Hoffman, 'The Karate Kid,' And A Play With Vampires

The trailer for “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead” has been on the web for a few days now. The nepotism friendly comedy stars Dustin Hoffman’s son, Jake, who plays Julian Marsh, an unemployed ladies’ man who lands a job directing a bizarre adaptation of “Hamlet”… with vampires. But, the twist! It turns out that the production was written by an actual vampire and Julian is caught in the middle of a two-thousand-year-old conspiracy that explains the connection between Shakespeare, the Holy Grail and vampires. Julian has to find the Grail in order to reverse the curse and change his best friend and his ex-girlfriend back into humans.

The film, scored by New York rocker Sean Lennon, looks like a bit of light harmless hipster fun that won’t hurt anyone but the characters themselves unless you go into vile convulsions when the screen is full of former models (Devon Aoki – sister of L.A. “superstar DJ” Steve Aoki, and daughter of Benihana steakhouse king Rocky Aoki) and various hipster ephemera (how Hollywood tart Bijou Phillips is not part of this is beyond us). The film also stars Ralph Macchio (hello, Karate Kid!), Johnny Ventimilgia, Kris Lemche, and Jeremy Sisto.

The film, directed by first-time feature filmmaker Jordan Galland (formerly of rock band Dope Yume who toured with Cibo Matto – Lennon was once a touring member; see the hipster connections?) , was written by Ventimiglia, best known as chef Artie Bucco on “The Sopranos.”

Galland is also a musician and his myspace page at one point had one song that looked like it was part of the ‘Undead’ soundtrack, but it looks to be gone.