Konami recently sent out a press release detailing more info regarding their upcoming fighting game Castlevania Judgment. Furthermore, they finally have a release date for the game! Find out more after the jump!

Blood's about to spill and we can't be more excited about it. After the discovery of a Castlevania Judgment patent last April that sent waves of excitement rippling through us, we now have more definitive details about this bloodsuckin' game from Konami. It's going to the Wii, and it looks like it's gonna be 3D.

Seems that a Castlevania game for the Wii is getting more and more likely. According to a listing for Castlevania: Curse of Darkness, a comic book based on the PS2 game, a new Castlevania game is scheduled for release on the Wii and DS sometime this year. Details in the full article.

It's been a while since we last heard about the Castlevania movie, and now we get news of the ambitious project being postponed due to an ongoing writer's guild strike. Will this game-to-movie adaptation ever see the light of day, or has it been killed outright with a stake to the heart and silver bullets to the spleen? Check out the entire scoop in the full article.

Transmetropolitan creator Warren Ellis has recently let out a few interesting details on the upcoming direct-to-DVD Castlevania animated movie through the official Castlevania: Dracula's Curse production blog. Ellis has signed on as the animated film's screenwriter.

First of all, Ellis says that it's going to be a trilogy, as in there will be three Castlevania animated films. The film will be set in Wallachia in 1476, and long-time fans will be pleased to note that the movie team has "worked with Koji Igarashi to get the film solidly inside the Castlevania timeline." Also, it won't be your generic kids' movie, so we can probably expect some mature themes here and there.

According to Ellis, Igarashi has "approved everything I came up with, including some new embroidering to the timeline. To make it work as a film, I had to introduce new backstory, and I went through five drafts of the premise and three of the full outline to get the material where IGA wanted it."

As for character appearances, Sypha Belnades is in, Grant DaNasty is out. The reason? Ellis gives out three, but let's just take two. Reason one: "Grant DaNasty is a stupid name that I cannot take seriously. (When he does turn up, I’ll probably use the alternate spelling of Grant DiNesti.)" Reason two: "Seriously, what use is a pirate on dry land? 'Avast, ye swabs, and push me fecking cart! Arrr!' No. Just no."

Dennis Lee, Product Marketing Manager for Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, was asked by Cubed3 in an interview as to what were his own opinions on the final release version of the title that came out in last year. He was proud of the game that their team and Koji Igarashi's team worked on for a full year and was fond of the dual character system that Portrait of Ruin introduced. He especially said:

I'm very pleased with the outcome of Portrait of Ruin. The gameplay really feels like an extension of the classic formula with the dual characters but still feels and plays like an authentic Castlevania title. Out of all of the features and gameplay components, I think that if we had more time in development, we would have liked to expand on the multi-player and with the concept of the Shop Mode.

Adding additional courses or side-quests for the multi-player modes and maybe even working out a way to add a [second] player into the main game would have been great to add.

But perhaps the biggest news from Konami Entertainment is that while the next Castlevania title is almost nearing completion for the PSP, they're looking forward to discovering new ways to introduce the franchise into different consoles and handhelds. There have been no official announcements on the next title or story to be worked on, but they have confirmed that they are already eyeing target consoles. Answering a question about Castlevania on the Wii, Lee said:

We're planning to continue to keep bringing fans more Castlevania titles in the future and we're not ruling out any platforms at the moment. We're looking at each and every console and are determining the strengths of each platform and how to utilize the new hardware and features to bring new adventures to the fans.

So gamers on the Wii, take pride and hope dearly that Konami finally ships a Castlevania title your way, and not just through the Wii's Virtual Console. For now, gamers on the Nintendo DS can rest assured that Konami is still considering their platform for another successor in the series.

After hearing this bit of news, this blogger feels as if a stake has been driven straight through his heart. A lot of us have probably been wishing for our favorite franchises on the Wii. A lot of gamers seem to want Castlevania. But it seems like we won't be seeing one anytime soon.

Konami producer Koji Igarashi recently had an interview with "Nintendo Power". It seems like he doesn't have much praise reserved for the controller scheme of the Wii system. His statement drives a nail into the coffin, as quoted below:

For me, the Nintendo Wii controller doesn't yet connect with the core gameplay of Castlevania. I definitely don't want to make a game with gimmicky controls where you swing the controller like a whip...

Major bummer. Some fans might be hanging from the rafters by now. Some of you might be even wondering, if Prince of Persia has all the whip-action that they could make use of with the Wiimote, then why not develop it for Castlevania also?

Guess there's no longer any more reason to "stake out" for a Castlevania, if you get what I mean.

Don't worry, though. Fans of the franchise still have something worth waiting for. It stars with a letter "M" and rhymes with "ovie". Yeah, with a budget of US$ 50 million to produce, the movie is something that'll surely make fans go batty.

Perhaps it's time to ask our hardcore gamers how long it's been since they last enjoyed the sunlight outside, and reminisced on the days when their handhelds or console controllers weren't permanently attached to their hands, eh?

Hahaha, kidding guys, but seriously (for some of you at least), when was the last time you dropped your video games to go out and watch a movie?

If you had to think for more than 10 minutes to answer that question, then we say it's been a LONG time. If it's THAT hard for you steer away from video games, this movie should help make the transition easy. Why? 'Cuz it's based on a classic video game series! And surely you've heard of Castlevania, yes?

Universal's Rogue Pictures has just released a teaser poster for the movie adaptation of the classic Castlevania series, and was put on display at the American Film Market last week. And as you Castlevania-freaks probably know already, the movie will trace back the origin of the struggle between the Belmont clan and Lord Dracula. Slashfilm also reports that the film will actually cover many time periods but the focus will be on 15th century Transylvania.

Paul W.S. Anderson, who also directed the Resident Evil movie, is slated to direct the US$ 50 million film that is said to still be in pre-production phase, with the producers still scouting for good locations in Hungary and Romania. And because they haven't even started taping yet, the earliest we'd probably get to see the film is spring next year.

Revolution Report polled its readers to see what third party franchise they want to see on Nintendo’s next generation console.  Readers were given nine franchise options, as well as "none of the above" box. Capcom's Resident Evil series received 33% of the 2746 votes. The Final Fantasy franchise was in second place with 24%. There was a three-way tie for third place between Castlevania, Sonic and "None of the Above" (7% each).