Luc Besson, the filmmaker behind The Professional and Anna, returns to dark, gothic terrain with Dracula, a romantic reimagining of Bram Stoker’s enduring myth. Caleb Landry Jones steps into the title role, opposite Christoph Waltz—fresh from Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein—with Zoë Bleu, Matilda de Angelis, Guillaume de Tonquedec, Ewens Abid, and Raphael Luce rounding out the supporting cast.
Besson says the project was motivated less by the vampire legend than by a desire to work again with Jones, following their collaboration on Dogman. While considering roles that would suit the actor, he arrived at Stoker’s creation, approaching it from what he calls “a totally romantic” perspective. His adaptation highlights a facet of the novel he believes has often been overlooked: the story of a man condemned to wait 400 years for the reincarnation of his lost wife.
Set in the 15th century, Dracula frames its titular figure as a tragic, immortal prince, consumed by grief after the death of his wife, played by Bleu. Jones’s Dracula is relentlessly hunted by a priest, portrayed by Waltz, as the film embraces gothic romance and melancholic fantasy rather than conventional horror.
]Ahead of its U.S. release on February 13, SCREAM spoke with Besson, Bleu, and Jones about reframing Dracula as a tale of undying love rather than monstrous terror, constructing a new origin story beyond Stoker, and negotiating the weight of one of literature’s most enduring – and feared – figures.
Words: Howard Gorman
