With the huge number of Dracula-inspired films and TV shows rising from the development grave at the moment, you might wonder whether studio and network executives had fallen sway to the power of the fanged fiend himself. Be ready to check more moguls for teeth marks, as Jonathan Rhys Meyers has been cast as the world’s most famous fictional vampire* in a new TV drama.
US network NBC has skipped the pilot stage and handed out a 10-episode order to producers Tony Krantz and Colin Callender, and they in turn have set writer Cole Haddon the task of starting work on the series.
The rough outline, which is set in the 1890s, is apparently a crossbreed of Dangerous Liaisons and The Tudors (not a shocker to see why they’ve cast, Meyers, then), which means Meyers will be using his stare-power to win over his victims.
Posing as an American entrepreneur who wants to usher in a new age of modern science to Victorian Britain, he’s actually arrived on our shores to wreak revenge on the descendants of the people who ruined his life centuries earlier. There’s just one small wrinkle in his plan: he meets a woman who appears to be the reincarnation of his dead wife, and falls hopelessly in love. Those in the UK will get to see the show on Sky Living, though we really think it should be on Sky Undead…
Dracula has always been a pop culture touchstone, and there are 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.
*YES more famous than Edward. Sheesh.