Steven Moffat & Mark Gatiss Are Working on a Dracula TV Show For the BBC
The creators of BBC’s Sherlock, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, have found their next classic work to update for television – Dracula. Something, something, living death.
Variety writes, “Work on the new series has yet to begin in earnest, as Gatiss and Moffat are currently working on solo projects. But talks are already underway with the BBC.” The series would take the same type of format as Sherlock and be produced by Moffat, Gatiss, and Sue Vertue’s Hartswood Films.
The Gothic horror novel Dracula was published by Bram Stoker in 1897 and has spawned numerous retellings including the Bela Lugosi-starring 1931 film and 1992’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula from Francis Ford Coppola starring Gary Oldman, Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, and Sir Anthony Hopkins. Variety says Gatiss is a fan of the 1958 version starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.
Variety also notes, “It is not yet clear whether, like Sherlock, Dracula will have a modern-day British setting.” But who can forget the already updated version, Wes Craven Presents Dracula 2000, which starred Gerard Butler in the title role along with Christopher Plummer, Jeri Ryan, Jennifer Esposito, musician Vitamin C, Omar Epps, Sean Patrick Thomas, Danny Masterson, Shane West, and Nathan Fillion to name a few. Oh, it also starred Jonny Lee Miller who, coincidentally, plays another version of Sherlock in CBS’s Elementary.
Even though I’m a big vampire lover, I think I’ll pass on this one. How about you?
Hbomberguy did a very effective and thorough autopsy of the recurring weaknesses in Moffat’s work (in spite of what the inflammatory title might lead one to believe), not only in Sherlock, but Jekyll and Doctor Who. Highly recommended viewing.
https://youtu.be/LkoGBOs5ecM
You curmudgeoned your way through this entire comment section, but at least now I have something to watch. So…thank you?
(I quite liked Jekyll, but it was a bit ago…with more Moffat under my belt, maybe it would fall apart.)
Me too. But I think probably it’s was due to James Nesbitt excellent performance.
He looks like he’s having a blast, if I remember correctly. You can always tell when actors are enjoying themselves. See also: Jeremy Irons in D&D.
I’ll watch it…and if it’s bad I will sing Jason Segel’s “Dracula’s Lament” to make it better.
PleaseDon’tSuckPleaseDont’tSuckPleaseDon’tSu—well OK, actually *do* suck, just not that way… We’ve never gotten an actually faithful adaptation of Dracula in theaters, and Sherlock’s mini-movie series format might actually work. Even the last TV version I saw, I watched it still hoping that it might be quasi-faithful up until the point they revealed the Count and Van Helsing were working together.
I’ll wait until the premiere is at least made before I make any decisions. There’s always the slight chance that it could be something great. Very slight.
The first episodes of everything Moffat does are exemplary. The problem is what they quickly turn into.
Steven Moffat did fine with “Jekyll” which updated the Robert Louis Stevenson classic, and Mark Gatiss seems at his best with the Hammer Horror-inspired material. I shall err on the side on cautiously optimistic.
Jekyll turned into a bloody train-wreck three episodes in. I am not hopeful for this.
We can sometimes get good things from TV vampire shows….such as Katie McGrath
https://static.lgbtfansdeservebetter.com/uploads/2017/01/Lucy-Westenra-Katie-McGrath.png
or Eva Green
http://cdn3.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/scale_crop_768_433/2015/07/pennydreadful_210_0122.r.jpg