Director Karyn Kusama (“Jennifer’s Body“) has recently been making quite the career comeback with films such as “The Invitation” and the Nicole Kidman cop thriller “Destroyer” along with being involved with the hit Showtime series “Yellowjackets.” However, after being hand-picked by Blumhouse to make a new Dracula film two years ago, the film is sadly not moving forward.
Deadline now reports that the horror film has been shelved after Blumhouse’s producing partner Miramax pulled out as filming was about to begin production. “Mina Harker” would have starred Jasmine Cephas Jones (“Blindspotting“) as the titular character that meets Dracula, using the name Vladimir, in modern-day Los Angeles.
“Destroyer” actor Sebastian Stan, who is Romanian, had stated he was asking Kusama about playing the vampire.
“I already emailed her about that,” the actor laughed. “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.’”
Screenwriters Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi penned the script which was based on the iconic Bram Stoker novel that birthed the Dracula lore and influenced the Francis Ford Coppola film released in 1992, one of the final studio films to employ heavy practical/in-camera special effects before CGI took over the industry after “Jurassic Park.”
This isn’t the only recent film taking cues from the Stoker novel as Steven Spielberg‘s Amblin resurrected the long-gestating “The Last Voyage of Demeter” from director André Øvredal (“Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark“). ‘Last Voyage’ is based on a single chapter that focuses on Dracula’s voyage to London as he picked off various ship hands by feeding on them. That one is looking at a release date of January 27, 2023, by Universal Pictures.
Universal is also behind the horror-comedy “Renfield” coming out on April 14, 2023, that stars Oscar-winner Nicolas Cage as Dracula and Nicholas Hoult as his loyal servant, Renfield.
It’s unclear whether Blumhouse will attempt to bring the project to another studio.