Luc Besson Will Take a Stab at Directing Dracula

There’ve been a lot of versions of Dracula running around in pop culture. Within the past decade, he’s been on a boat, ran a hotel, and been incredibly depressed after his wife was murdered, and we eat it up (almost) every time. Folks love themselves some Drac, and you can count Luc Besson among them, because he’s be cooking up a Dracula movie of his own.

Per Variety, the Valerian director will direct an adaptation of the 1897 Bram Stoker novel. Titled Dracula – A Love Tale, the upcoming film is being billed as a “big-budget reimagining” that functions as an origin story for the Prince of Darkness. Caleb Landry Jones, who’s already worked with Besson on 2023’s DogMan, will play 15th century Prince Vladimir, who becomes a vampire after cursing God for the death of his wife. Centuries later in 19th century London, he discovers a woman who looks just like his lost love and makes her the object of his affection obsession.

At present, Jones is only joined by Christoph Waltz, though it’s unclear what role the No Time to Die actor will have in the story. Deadline further reports other “buzzy” cast members are being talked to for key roles, and the film will lean more into the gothic romance elements of the character.

The next few years are going to big for fans of classic horror icons. Along with Universal’s Abigail in April (a reimagining of the studio’s 1936 film Dracula’s Daughter), Robert Eggers has his own Dracula movie in Nosferatu, which is expected to drop sometime this year. Maggie Gyllenhaal is doing a Bride of Frankenstein movie as Guillermo del Toro handles a separate Frankenstein adaptation, and a Wolf Man movie from Leigh Whannell is currently set to launch in October.

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