It was announced in March that Karyn Kusama (JENNIFER'S BODY, THE INVITATION) will be directing a new take on DRACULA for Blumhouse, working from a screenplay by THE INVITATION writers Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay. Kusama recently joined The Kingcast podcast for a look back at Stephen King's Carrie, and during the episode she also talked a little bit about her approach to DRACULA.
While it has been said that Manfredi and Hay's script is set in modern day, Kusama said that the film will be "a fairly faithful adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel", which was published in 1897.
I think something that gets overlooked in 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 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."
Thanks to Syfy Wire for the transcription.
Actor Sebastian Stan, who is best known for playing Bucky "The Winter Soldier" Barnes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and had a role in Kusama's film DESTROYER (which was also written by Manfredi and Hay), has said that he sent the director an email in hopes of getting a role in the film, since he's originally from the same country as Dracula, Romania.
We'll keep you updated on Kusama's DRACULA as it moves forward. Although Blumhouse has a deal with Universal, they have not yet made it official that this project will be a Universal release.