Dracula Untold

This one looks interesting: a retelling as to why he turned into a vampire.

Admittedly the trailer rather spoils EVERYTHING (Don't think the studio has much faith in it) but it looks pretty big budget from the scenes alone.

PLUS CHARLES DANCE VAMPIRE

https://www.facebook.com/DraculaUntoldUK?fref=photo

Not sure if there's a Youtube version for you non-bookfacers.

edited 27th Jun '14 1:11:12 PM by JerekLaz

Yeah, I wouldn't watch the trailer if I were you. It probably spoils the first three-fourths of the film. Which doesn't look that bad, to be honest. I'd go so far as to say it looks like what Maleficent should have been, albeit a bit darker. That and Evans is a pretty good actor.

This looks boring.

I'm mildly curious about it. At the very least it seems like an actual Protagonist Journey to Villain instead of bullshit Draco in Leather Pants.

If it is, it'll be the best thing to come out of this "iconic villain origin story" craze.

Producers are caught in a logic break where they recognize that people want to see movies starring their favorite villains but don't understand that people want to see them be villains.

DO: Give the character more three-dimensionality, creating understandable backstory and motivation that builds the villain's identity, personality, character.

DON'T: Go so far with it that you rewrite the villain as the hero of the piece, because then it's not a villain origin story, now is it?

Personally, I actually really liked Maleficent, but I can see the reasons why others didn't. Producers are trying really hard to have these Villain Origins end happily, and to quote Rumpelstiltskin from Once Upon a Time, "Villains don't get a happy ending."

edited 27th Jun '14 7:13:24 PM by TobiasDrake

On a side-note, I'd like if someone once made a movie about the actual guy behind the myth, Vlad Tepes, without the supernatural elements.

Dracula Untold seems to be a Historical Fantasy of sorts (I read some synopsies mentioning that the movie's Big Bad is the Ottoman Emperor who Vlad fought with), but I'd enjoy a straight biopic of Vlad the Impaler..

I am getting tired of hearing that everyone wants to rule the world. This is the second or third trailer I have seen with it.

The movie looks interesting.

Dude (referring to director or producer), you have to be really, really good in toppling Gabriel Belmont's Dracul to make this viable.

What on earth are you talking about? What does the Castlevania series have to do with this or any other Dracula themed movie?

They very recently did an entire game dedicated to the origin story of Dracula, and then did a sequel that puts players in the role of Dracula himself.

That's fresh in the minds of a lot of gamers, so this movie is going to draw comparisons from that section of the audience; that much is unavoidable.

edited 28th Jun '14 9:15:00 AM by TobiasDrake

It is still largely irrelevant. Especially considering the target audience is doubtfully such a narrow selection of the population.

It also is not a video game movie but an entirely separate piece of media.

edited 28th Jun '14 10:02:14 AM by TuefelHundenIV

Of course an entirely different subset will be complaining that he isn't sparkling...

Overall it'll be interesting to see if they go the "present day" a la Victorian times, to tell the story from the other perspective. All this footage could be right from the start of the film alone.

They really struck good with the casting of Dracula though - and I like how the armour is a vague nod to Gary Oldman's in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Ridged and red... although not quite as S&M.

There's a few stills floating around (like the one at the top of this page) that show him in what looks like Victorian clothing. Here's a better one.

Speaking of that article: I know some people will object to a PG-13 for this one, but if the filmmakers want, they can get away with plenty of R-worthy violence as long as the blood's a different shade of red.

edited 28th Jun '14 2:35:09 PM by Mort08

Could be interesting, assuming they don't do something silly like make him be really Satan (thank you, Hugh Jackman) or try to make him a targic (sic) misunderstood loner with a heart of gold.

And keep him away from any female whose name sounds like Bella.

Wait, Dracula wasn't Satan in Van Helsing. Van Helsing was strongly implied to be a fallen angel, but Dracula was a person (at one point he literally lists his birth and subsequent death date). He had satanic powers, but he wasn't Satan.

Now that you mention it, I recall that the girl was related to Drac, non? Blame my poor memory. Either way.

If I well remember, Dracula's backstory in that movie went thus: He was a member of a Gypsy royal family (Just roll with it) who died and made a deal with the Devil (or something similar), thus turning into the monster we know today, so his father, seeing his son became a monster, made a pact with God: His family would never enter Heaven (being stuck in purgatory for eternity) until Dracula died. Hence his entire lineage is dedicated to killing Dracula. The movie's Love Interest is the last member of that family, so she's techinically tangently related to Dracula (who must be her great-great-great-great-great-great uncle or something of the sort).

I actually quite liked that movie's backstory on Dracula.

It's a great vampire backstory, but a lousy Dracula backstory.

So, this doesn't look like the worst thing ever. But I could be wrong.

The director is a first-timer, which gives me pause. Then again, every great director was a first-timer once.

If he's a first timer, he doesn't have a history of sucking to fall back on. He may acquit himself well. Dracula Untold will be so insanely successful that Bela Lugosi will become a mere footnote in the distinguished history of Luke Evans as THE quintessential Dracula

edited 29th Jun '14 6:06:58 PM by Eagal

You know, I figured eventually Dracula would get the heroic treatment. I can only imagine how many Romanians who view Prince Vlad as a national hero have felt irked by most of the West's obsession with making him one of the ultimate evils, even the real person had been demonized for years before people thought to ask the Romanians what they thought of him.

I think he already did get the heroic treatment a few times in the media, though perhaps not with this large a budget.......How much did it cost to make Lords of Shadow 2, again?

Though I repeat, this movie does not seem (from the trailers at least) to be heroifying him per see. They're saying he was a good guy once but developed in the monster we know as he was corrupted by his power. Or at least that's what the trailer implies ("You think you're alive because you can fight? You're alive because of what I DID to save you!" in the most spiteful tone possible)