The director of the recent horror flick The Invisible Man has shown interest in rebooting Dracula. Leigh Whannell may not have very many directing credits to his name, but he has been working in the horror genre for several years. Whannell is most known for co-creating the Saw franchise with James Wan, as well as writing and acting in all four of the Insidious movies. Whannell made his directorial debut in 2015 with Insidious: Chapter 3, before directing Upgrade in 2018.
While there has been a newfound interest in rebooting classic horror films, one character filmmakers have had trouble with is Dracula. The original Dracula book was written by Bram Stoker in 1897. F. W. Murnau adapted the story in 1922 with Nosferatu, before Universal Studios found success in their 1931 film starring Bela Lugosi. While Dracula, Nosferatu, and Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula are some of the highlights of the Dracula franchise, there have been several more that have been less than successful. The two most recent examples of this would be Dracula Untold, which was supposed to kickstart Universal's studios classic monster reboot, as well as BBC's disappointing Dracula series starring Claes Bang. Neither one of these Dracula tales left a lasting impression on fans, but Whannell has an idea on how to reboot Dracula.
In a recent interview with Bloody Disgusting, Whannell talked about how he would reboot Dracula with a modern-day setting, similar to what he did with The Invisible Man. While Whannell in no way suggested he was working on a Dracula adaptation, he has it all planned out on how he would make it. Part of Whannell's quote can be read below:
"I think I would try to get at the essence of what makes Dracula scary, which is, to me, what makes Dracula scary is his lack of mercy. The fact that he might pretend... Like, he’s not a romantic. He needs to drink blood. What parallels in life can you think of that equate to someone without mercy. It’s a psychopath, right? A psychopath... So to have this conversation with you, I’m spitballing here, I would take the character right back to that and be like, I’m going to make the psychopath version of this. The person who just doesn’t give a f***. Maybe he drinks blood but beyond that, there’s no capes, there’s no lightning, there’s no fog, no wolves. It’s just a psychopath who drinks blood.”
Over the years, Universal has made several attempts to reboot their classic monster movies, with varying success. Their first two Mummy films with Brendan Fraser boded well with fans, but two years after the disappointing The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Universal tried to reboot The Wolfman with Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, and Emily Blunt. The Wolfman didn't go over well with fans or critics, and Universal failed to make back their $150,000,000 budget. Before The Invisible Man hit theaters, Universal tried to bank off of The Mummy again, but it seemingly ended up being the final nail in the coffin for their Dark universe.
While Universal supposedly has plans for more classic monster movies, The Invisible Man might kickstart a modern take on the genre. The Invisible Man has been getting stellar reviews, so Whannell certainly has a chance to work with Universal Studios again on more monster movies. Whannell is starting to prove himself as a director, and with a clear plan for rebooting Dracula, he could very well get the opportunity to make his idea reality.
Source: Bloody Disgusting