Luc Besson To Direct Dracula Movie Starring Caleb Landry Jones And Christoph Waltz
Dracula will never die — at least as long as Hollywood has anything to say about it. According to Variety, director Luc Besson ("Léon The Professional," "The Fifth Element") is helming a new "Dracula" film starring Christoph Waltz ("Inglourious Basterds") and Caleb Landry Jones (who last starred in Besson's "Dogman).
Besson's "Dracula" joins a crowded pack. 2023 saw the release of "Renfield," an action-comedy featuring Nicolas Cage as Dracula but focusing on Nicholas Hoult as the Count's undead assistant. Another film, released only a few months later, stuck more closely to the Lord of Vampires' horror roots: "The Last Voyage of the Demeter" adapted the chapter of Bram Stoker's original novel where Dracula sails to London in a coffin and murders the ship's crew. That film's Dracula (Javier Botet) was a batlike demon, a far cry from the affable Cage.
Coming up soon is "Abigail," a reimagining of Universal Pictures' 1936 film "Dracula's Daughter." And on Christmas Day 2024, every cinephile's gift will be Robert Eggers' "Nosferatu," a remake of the 1922 silent classic that was just a shameless rip-off of "Dracula." One wonders how Besson's "Dracula" will stand out amid this glut of Dracula content.
What kind of Dracula are we getting?
Besson is best known as an action filmmaker. Will his "Dracula" follow suit and put the Count in a bloody modern-set splatterfest, à la "Hellsing"? Details are scarce so far, but reporting by Variety suggests that Besson is planning to adapt Stoker's original novel, not merely use the Dracula character. That report also suggests the film will take cues from Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 epic "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (my personal favorite Dracula movie), depicting the vampire's origins as 15th-century Wallachian Prince Vladimir, who spites God and becomes eternal evil after the death of his wife. This leads to his undead love story with his beloved's 19th-century reincarnation, Mina Harker. Deadline reports that the current title of Besson's film is even "Dracula – A Love Tale."
The natural assumption would be that Waltz is playing Dracula; he's a European gentleman with a devious smile and a penchant for playing villains, after all. However, reporting by Deadline (corroborated by The Hollywood Reporter) suggests that Landry Jones is actually the one in talks to play Dracula. If you have any doubt he can play a horror villain, watch Jordan Peele's "Get Out." Waltz's role is still unconfirmed at this time — this is total speculation, but could he be playing Dracula's human nemesis, Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, perhaps?
Besson's "Dracula" is being produced by his production company EuropaCorp and sold by Kinology. Currently in pre-production, it does not have a scheduled release date yet.