Variety is reporting that the BBC is in the early stages of developing “Dracula” for television. The exciting part of the project is that it is going to be run by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, who brought the world “sherlock,” a modern retelling of the tales of the consulting detective written by Arthur Conan Doyle. The series will come out in limited seasons of feature-length episodes.
Modern age or Victorian era?
The first question fans are apparently asking is whether the new series will be set during modern times, like “Sherlock,” or the Victorian era of Bram Stoker’s novel.
To be sure, previous attempts to place the bloodsucking count in the modern age have either not worked very well or have been played for laughs, such as the George Hamilton take on the character set during the disco-era in the 1970s.
On the other hand, Gatiss and Moffat did make Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson believable as 21St Century men, getting them mixed up with spies, terrorists, and insane serial killers. Count Dracula would surely fit right into such a milieu. In fact, one can dare say that 21st Century villains would learn to be very afraid of the suave, Balkan count.
What about another time period?
On the other hand, considering that Dracula is supposed to be the vampire incarnation of Vlad Tepes, a Balkan warlord who was the terror of Turkish invaders, all sorts of opportunities exist for flashbacks across five hundred years of history.
The series “Highlander,” about another kind of immortal, interwove flashbacks in its episodes with great alacrity. One can imagine the Count popping up anywhere to make trouble. One possibility was suggested by an old “Night Gallery” episode that depicted Dracula leading the resistance in Transylvania against the Nazi occupation during World War II and getting his country’s highest decoration as a result.
When might we see BBC’s 'Dracula'?
The short answer to when we might see Dracula on the small screen thanks to the BBC seems to be not for a while. Both Gatiss and Moffat are engaged in individual projects and are not yet actively involved in the show’s development. Casting has not yet begun. Still, the idea of the original neck-biting bloodsucker returning to the airwaves is a beguiling one, and worth looking forward to.
Vampires have been all the rage recently, with TV series like “True Blood” and the “Twilight” movie series. But, before Bill, Edward, and all the rest, Count Dracula walked the night, bringing terror and passion wherever he went.
