Lead casting seems to be complete on the upcoming NBC series ‘Dracula’ as the network has announced that Thomas Kretschmann and Oliver Jackson-Cohen have signed on for the series.
NBC’s ‘Dracula’ is not the usual retelling of the vampire tale. This version is more like “‘Dangerous Liaisons’ meets ’The Tudors’” and has the infamous blood sucker landing in 1890’s Victorian London posing as an American entrepreneur who has intentions of bringing modern science to the people. In reality, he is there to wreck the lives of the ancestors who had ruined his live centuries earlier. There’s only one catch, he falls in love with a woman who is a perfect reincarnation of his dead wife.
The title role of Dracula has been given to Jonathan Rhys Meyers (‘The Tudors’, ‘The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones’) with Jessica De Gouw (‘Arrow’) playing Mina Murray, the woman he falls in love with. Katie McGrath (‘Merlin’) was recently signed on to play Mina’ friend, Lucy Westerna and Victoria Smurfit (‘Bullettproof Monk’) as Lady Jane. Also joining the fray is Nonso Anosie (‘Game of Thrones’, ‘Enders Game’) as Reinfield, Dracula’s loyal confident.
In the series, Jackson-Cohen (‘The Raven’) will play the handsome Jonathan Harker (made famous by Keaun Reeves in the 1992 movie version ) and is described as a “tenacious and slightly gauche journalist desperate to climb the rand of aristocracy and stay there.”
Meanwhile, Kretschmann (‘The River’, ‘The Cape’) is the show’s Van Helsing except in this version, he is a “brilliant professor with a seemingly cool exterior whose obsession with revenge and power may make him a more dangerous threat to the public than Dracula himself.” Hm… intrigued?
NBC has given ‘Dracula’ a straight to order series and has greenlit 10 episodes so far. If it does well in the ratings, it may garner a full season order. If not, then it may see the same fate as ‘Do No Harm.’
Hopefully by the time ‘Dracula’ airs, the bloom of retooling classic tales has not worn off as this sounds like a series that audiences can sink their teeth into.
Time will tell and well keep you up to date as the project progresses.
Source: Deadline
