Jonathan Rhys Meyer Takes On Dracula
Twilight, The Vampire Diaries, Underworld, the list is goes on and on and on. So the question now is, how much more of this can we stand? Yes I hear you “no more pleeeease” but wait, what is it about these movies that make them so irresistible, even when we have vowed never to sit through another B grade Kirsten Stewart/Robert Patterson love fest marathon ever again? The boys of course!! Shall I remind you of the Robert vs. Jacob saga? For those of you out there with a more refined palate for both men and movies comes Dracula, staring Irish heart throb Jonathan Rhys Meyers.
Bram Stoker’s 1897 Gothic horror novel will be brought to life on the small screen as NBC is set to create a 10-episode straight-to-series recreation of the Dracula story. Our man Meyers is to take on the lead role. Oh the dark smouldering stares. So how will this re-telling compare to the numerous other adaptations of this classic hit? And is Rhys Meyers to be the next Irish export to the US to tops the likes of Collin Farrell?
We all knew he was superb, gaining a Golden Globe nomination as the handsome and slightly insane King Henry VIII in The Tudors, but it seems the Yanks haven’t gotten their fill of him yet. Bought in January by NBC with a “script-to-series” commitment the series is to be produced by Tony Krantz, Colin Callender and writer Cole Haddon for both NBC and U.K.’s Sky Living. So what will Rhys Meyers’s Dracula feel like?
According to a review in Empire Magazine the Rhys Meyer’s Dracula poses as an American entrepreneur who seeks to usher in a new age of modern science to Victorian Britain, however in traditional vampiric style, he has actually arrived on our shores to wreak revenge on the descendants of the people who ruined his earlier life. There’s just one small flaw in his plan: he meets a woman who appears to be the reincarnation of his dead wife, and he falls hopelessly in love. Can I be the reincarnated wife??
So yes we have all been vampired to death (pun intended) but it seems this re-imagining of the original may prove a different experience to Twilight (thank goodness!) and uber sexy to boot! In over a 100 years Dracula has never been relegated to the dusty basement of popular culture and probably never will be. So heads up, vampiric fantasy isn’t going to dissipate any time soon. According to Empire there are rumours of at least three or four other projects in the works, including Sony's Dracula, a revitalised Dracula: Year Zero and the recently announced Vlad Dracula cable TV series. Though we doubt they’ll rival out sexy leading man.
By Saabeah Aforo-Addo
