Two years ago, it was announced that Blumhouse Productions was teaming up with Karyn Kusama, director of Jennifer’s Body and The Invitation, for a Dracula movie – one which Kusama said would be “a fairly faithful adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel”. Even though it was going to be set in modern day. Now comes the disappointing news (via Deadline) that Kusama and Blumhouse’s Dracula project, which was called Mina Harker and had Jasmine Cephas Jones (Blindspotting) on board to play the title character, has been scrapped just three weeks before filming was scheduled to begin.
Scripted by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, Mina Harker would have been
set in contemporary Los Angeles, centering on protagonist Mina Harker, who plays opposite Dracula in the movie, with the classic Bram Stoker protagonist going by the name of Vladimir in the film.
According to Deadline, Mina Harker had been set up at Miramax – and it all fell apart when “Miramax exited over creative differences with the filmmaker.” The crew was informed yesterday.
Kusama was producing the project with Hay, Manfredi, Blumhouse founder Jason Blum, and Miramax’s Bill Block. Bea Sequeira was executive producing and overseeing for Blumhouse.
Now we’ll have to wait and see if Blumhouse will try to find a new home for Mina Harker, or if this project is dead for good. Some fans had been expecting Blumhouse to take their Dracula movie to Universal, since they frequently work with that studio and made The Invisible Man for them, but Universal already has a couple Dracula projects in the works. (Namely the violent comedy Renfield, which stars Nicolas Cage as Dracula, and the sci-fi Western take on the Dracula concept that Chloe Zhao is developing.)
It’s a shame to hear that Mina Harker has fallen apart when it was so close to going into production. I’m a fan of both Jennifer’s Body and The Invitation, so I was really curious to see what Kusama was going to do with Dracula.
Are you disappointed to hear that Karyn Kusama’s Dracula movie / Mina Harker has been scrapped? Let us know by leaving a comment below.