Karyn Kusama says her Dracula reboot will be fairly faithful to the novel

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

While the Dark Universe franchise may be dead and buried, the Universal Monsters will live on thanks the critical and commercial success of Leigh Whannell's THE INVISIBLE MAN. Following the failure of THE MUMMY, Universal began working on a new slate of Universal Monster movies which would move away from an interconnected universe and instead focus on bringing in creative directors with distinctive visions for the classic monsters.

There are a variety of projects focusing on the studio's infamous Monsters, and one of the next to get the reboot-treatment is the Prince of Darkness himself – Dracula. Karyn Kusama, best known for THE INVITATION and DESTROYER, is slated to direct a DRACULA film for Blumhouse Productions with Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay set to pen the script, and the director recently spoke on The Kingcast podcast and gave a small tease about her Dracula project.

It’s a fairly faithful adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel. That's what I will say. 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.

There have been so many adaptations of Dracula over the decades that it's become hard to present a new take on the character, but I have faith in Karyn Kusama. Bring it on! Speaking of Dracula, one actor is already lobbying for the main role. Sebastian Stan, who appeared in Kusama's DESTROYER, told THR in April that he's been in touch with Kusama's about playing Dracula in the film. "I already emailed her about that," Stan said. "I said, 'You know I’m from Romania, right?' and she goes, 'Yes, yes, it’s very early — and there’s a pandemic. Hopefully, we’ll see you in four years.'"