Dracula will be “the hero of his own story” in radical reinterpretation by Sherlock creators
Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss says the switch-up was their main pitch to Netflix and the BBC – but it’s been giving them some problems…
While Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss’s new Dracula TV series won’t be bringing the iconic vampire to the present day (as the duo did with a certain Baker Street sleuth for Sherlock), the pair have revealed they are making one big change to previous adaptations of Bram Stoker’s original novel.
Speaking exclusively at the Radio Times Covers Party, the pair revealed that their big pitch to the BBC and Netflix has been to finally make Dracula “the hero of his own story” – the central focus of the narrative rather than a shadowy villain for more traditional heroes to overcome.
- Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss have finished writing Dracula with filming to start “very soon”
- When is Dracula coming to TV? Who’s writing it? And who’s in the cast?
- Mark Gatiss reveals the part he wants to play in his new Dracula TV series
“There’s lots of things that are challenging about Dracula,” Moffat said.
“Having an evil lead character is actually really difficult. That’s been the main challenge I think. But how we’ve handled, that you’ll have to wait and see.”
“It’s been very exciting though,” Gatiss added.
“Because we sort of made a promise to ourselves and the people who are making it, paying for it, that we’d make Dracula the hero of his own story, and less of a shadowy presence.
“And that’s a really clever idea, but we had to make good on it!”
In Bram Stoker’s original epistolary novel of 1897, Dracula is only ever seen through the eyes of humans trying to escape him or bring him to heel, with the Count representing a malevolent threat to humanity without any real sense of his inner life or perspective.
According to Moffat and Gatiss, their new Dracula – played by Danish actor Claes Bang – will bring that interiority on screen. Though, as noted above, it’s not been quite as easy as they anticipated when they first pitched the reinterpretation…
“We quickly found out why he’s often kept a shadowy presence!” joked Moffat.
“So it’s hard work, but I think it’s worked. It’s worked well I think, so far.”
Considering the duo have just written the final words of the three-part series’ last episode, fingers crossed they worked out the kinks in the end.
Dracula will begin shooting later this year
Authors
Huw Fullerton is a Commissioning Editor for Radio Times magazine, covering Entertainment, Comedy and Specialist Drama.
