Karyn Kusama’s Dracula Reboot Will Be More Faithful To The Original Novel – TheThings

The original 'Dracula' novel was published in 1897. The Universal adaptation in 1931 became the iconic version.

After the success of The Invisible Man, work began on reboots of Dracula and Frankenstein from Universal and Blumhouse as well as the Wolfman. Karyn Kusama was hired to direct the new Dracula in 2020.

On a recent podcast, Kusama discussed her upcoming film and how it will differentiate from previous Dracula adaptations. She said that her film will be more faithful to Bram Stoker's original novel.

The original novel was published in 1897. An unofficial film adaptation, called Nosferatu, was made in the silent film era but the filmmakers did not have the legal right to do so. As a result, Stoker's widow sued and tried to destroy every copy of the film. It's lucky that the film can still be seen today as it was influential on the horror genre.

The first legal adaptation of the novel was the 1931 film released by Universal and starring Bela Lugosi as the titular character. Several sequels were made although Lugosi only reprized his role once in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Universal made several other films at the time such Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, The Mummy, The Phantom of the Opera and The Creature From the Black Lagoon.

The characters from these movies became known as the Universal Monsters and are still the most iconic versions of the characters except for the Phantom thanks to the Broadway show. Hammer remade a lot of the films in the 1950s and 1960s through a partnership with Universal but those films are not as fondly remembered.

Universal has tried to reboot the monsters but the only real success was The Mummy in 1999 starring Brendan Frasier.

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After the 2012 success of The Avengers, many of the major studios began to search for their own cinematic universes. After all, it could be argued that the Universal Monsters were the original cinematic universe as the characters often crossed over into each other's films and fought each other.

The first attempt at creating this was 2013's Dracula Untold. When that film failed financially and critically, they went back to the drawing board. Their next attempt as a new reboot of The Mummy starring Tom Cruise.

Shortly before that film's release, Universal announced a slate of Monster movies that would be interconnected; they called it the Dark Universe. They even cast several of the roles. Russell Crowe appeared in The Mummy as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde who serves as their version of Nick Fury. Johnny Depp was cast as The Invisible Man and Javier Bardem as cast as Frankenstein.

However, The Mummy bombed at the box office and received mostly negative reviews. All the planned Monster reboots were put on hold.

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After Universal distributed successes from Blumhouse such as Happy Death Day and 2018's Halloween, it was decided to give Blumhouse a crack at the Universal monsters.

The first film was Leigh Whannel's The Invisible Man which was released in 2020 to great success. Blumhouse has a proven track record of success and The Invisible Man will lead to future collaborations between Blumhouse and Universal who have been searching for a way to get these characters back into the mainstream.

In March 2020, Variety reported that Karyn Kusama had been hired to helm a reboot of Dracula for Blumhouse. Kusama is most known for Jennifer's Body starring Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried and The Invitation.

Kusama recently appeared on an episode of The Kingcast to discuss Carrie. During her interview, she discussed her upcoming Dracula reboot. She said, "It's a fairly faithful adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel. I think something that gets overlooked in the adaptations of Dracula in the past is the idea of multiple voices. In fact, the book is filled with different points of view. And the one point of view we don't get access to, and all most adaptations give access to, is Dracula himself. So I would just say in some respect, this is going to be an adaptation called Dracula, but it's perhaps not the same kind of romantic hero that we've seen...in past interpretations of Dracula."

What Kusama is referring to is the narrative device of the book. Stoker told the story through journal entries and letters. It is the various characters giving first-hand accounts of the events. The only adaptation that tries to replicate that is the Franic Ford Coppola version from 1992 but that film is more interested in Dracula's story as a tragic and romantic hero as Kusama describes.

There is no current release date for the Dracula reboot. The BBC recently did their own adaptation that can be seen on Netflix.

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Sean Blumenshine is a writer based in Wichita, KS. He has written television and comic book reviews since 2015. He graduated from Wichita State University in 2017 with a degree in Communications. Interests include the horror genre, superheroes and the rock band Kiss.

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Karyn Kusama's Dracula Reboot Will Be More Faithful To The Original Novel - TheThings