Renfield: Bess Rous, James Moses Black join Nicolas Cage Dracula movie

The new Universal Monsters movie Renfield is currently filming in New Orleans, and Deadline has reported the names of two more cast members since production began. Those new additions are Bess Rous (Murder in the First) and James Moses Black (Queenpins). Details on Black’s character were not revealed, but we do know that Rous will be playing “Caitlyn, a member of a support group for people in toxic relationships.” It’s likely that the title character will be stopping by that support group, because this movie is all about “being Dracula’s henchman and how shitty a job that is.”

Based on a treatment written by The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, Renfield is being directed by Chris McKay (The Tomorrow War) from a screenplay by Ryan Ridley (Rick and Morty). In Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, 

R.M. Renfield was an inmate at a lunatic asylum who was thought to be suffering from delusions but actually is a servant of Dracula. Plot details of the movie weren’t announced, but it’s believed to take place during the present day and is not a period piece.

In this film, Renfield has been serving the bloodsucker for centuries, and now he

has grown sick and tired of his centuries as Dracula’s lackey. The henchman finds a new lease on life life and maybe even redemption when he falls for feisty, perennially angry traffic cop Rebecca Quincy.

Previously announced cast members include Nicholas Hoult as the title character Renfield, Nicolas Cage as Dracula, Awkwafina as traffic cop Rebecca Quincy, Adrian Martinez as her traffic cop partner Chris, Shohreh Aghdashloo as a feared crime lord named Ella, and Ben Schwartz in an unspecified role.

While Universal is developing several monster projects, they were excited to get Renfield into production first. According to Deadline, the story’s “mix of humor and action was something the studio was looking for because so many of the other properties have more of a horror element to them.” 

Kirkman, who has described the film as “a violent comedy”, is producing Renfield with David Alpert, Bryan Furst, and Sean Furst of Skybound Entertainment, alongside McKay’s producing partner Samantha Nisenboim.