Mel Brooks Will Play Adam Sandler’s (Vampire) Dad in ‘Hotel Transylvania 2’

You can make all the “‘Hotel Transylvania’ sucked!” jokes you want (and then follow them with with all the “Get it? Sucked? Because vampires?” jokes you want), but make no mistake: The movie was a big ol’ hit. The animated film about a hotel for famous monsters in a location I’ve yet to verify (but possibly Transylvania) earned almost $150 million in the United States and another $210 million worldwide back in 2012. That naturally inspired Sony to green-light the upcoming sequel, ‘Hotel Transylvania 2,’ which will open in theaters next September and once again features the voices of Adam Sandler (as Count Dracula), Adam Samberg (as Jonathan, a human), Selena Gomez (as Drac’s daughter Mavis), Kevin James (as Frank[enstein]), and Steve Buscemi (as Wayne the werewolf).

To that brood you can now add the name of comedy legend Mel Brooks, who, in an inspired bit of casting (or a shameless bit of ‘Spaceballs 2’-style searching for more money), will play Sandler’s dad Vlad. Deadline describes the character as “the very old and very grumpy vampire” father to Sandler’s Dracula, in a sequel that “sees old-school supernatural meet modern-day cool when Vlad turns up at the hotel for an impromptu family get-together.” Brooks himself said of Vlad “He’s been around for eons and he’s a pretty crabby guy. Basically, he reminds me of me.” Mel’s still got it.

But does Sandler? At this point, who knows? At least the movie has a solid creative team around him, including director Genndy Tartakovsky (‘Samurai Jack’) and writer Robert Smigel (a.k.a. Triumph the Insult Comic Dog). Brooks does seem like a fine choice for Sandler’s father, and it’s been so long since Mel’s done anything on the big screen beyond a vocal cameo here or there, that it’s sort of exciting to hear he’ll have a key role in something next year. I hope he gets to sing a musical number.