Last Updated on October 24, 2021
Your Halloween watch: the mini-series inspired by Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” is on Netflix. Claes Bang is the Prince of Darkness. Watch the teaser trailer below, if you dare. (The series is rated TV-14 but it’s pretty creepy!)
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Starring Danish actor Claes Bang as Dracula, the three-part mini-series was created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, the writers for “Sherlock.” Hartswood Films, who produced the new British period thriller said that Claes “… has it all. Brilliant, gorgeous, charismatic, lethal. Tall, dark and gruesome all at once.”
The cast includes period drama veterans Sofia Oxenham (Tess Tregidden in Poldark), Jonathan Aris (The War of the Worlds), Morfydd Clark (The Man Who Invented Christmas), Sacha Dhawan (Mr Selfridge), Paul Brennen (Borgia), Sarah Niles (Austenland), Phil Dunster (Catherine the Great), Lyndsey Marshal (Rome), Joanna Scanlan (The Woman in White), Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (The Collection), and Matthew Beard (The Imitation Game).
Actor John Heffernan, who is also joining the cast, has lots of experience in dark underbelly kinds of period dramas; he played Jaggers in “Dickensian,” Lascelles in “Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell,” and Laurence Brown in “Crooked House,” before cleaning up for his role as Lord Altrincham in “The Crown.” Dolly Wells (Mrs. Featherstone in Pride & Prejudice and Zombies) has some dark period drama background too.
Series writer Gatiss is also an actor and will appear in the new adaptation of “Dracula” – you may know him as John Dashwood in the 2008 adaptation of “Sense & Sensibility,” or as Lord Marlborough in “The Favourite.”
The Victorian era period drama premieres in the UK on BBC One, and on Netflix in the US and elsewhere around the world.
“Dracula” is available to stream on US Netflix beginning January 4, 2020.
Piers Wenger, Controller of BBC Drama was excited to be collaborating with Moffat and Gatiss the iconic British series: “Steven and Mark’s ingenious vision for Dracula is as clever as it is chilling. In their talented hands the fans will experience the power of Bram Stoker’s creation as if completely anew.”
The three feature length episodes will re-introduce the world to Dracula, the vampire who first made evil sexy in Stoker’s 1897 Gothic horror novel. In Transylvania in 1897, the blood-drinking Count is drawing his plans against Victorian London. And be warned: the dead travel fast.
Co-creators, writers and executive producers Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss said, “There have always been stories about great evil. What’s special about Dracula, is that Bram Stoker gave evil its own hero.”
Bang added “I’m so excited that I get to dig in to this iconic and super-interesting character. Yes he’s evil, but there’s also so much more to him, he’s charismatic, intelligent, witty and sexy. I realise that there’s a lot to live up to with all the amazing people that have played him over the years, but I feel so privileged, to be taking on this incredible character.”
In 2019, Claes Bang will be starring alongside Claire Foy in “The Girl in the Spider’s Web.”
If you want to catch up on the classic adaptation before you watch the upcoming series, stream “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” starring Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder in the tortured tale of a charismatic vampire, here.
If you enjoyed this post, you’ll want to wander over to The Period Films List. You’ll especially like the Best Period Dramas: Victorian Era List. Also see 20 Chilling Period Dramas for Halloween, and 15 Haunting Period Dramas for Halloween.
