October 7, 2008  New York Times

Arts, Briefly

Dracula Lives

Compiled by DAVE ITZKOFF

Count Dracula, the great-granddaddy of vampires, is poised for a comeback (not counting any previous incarnations in which he was portrayed by Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, George Hamilton or Udo Kier). That Transylvanian bloodsucker will return in a new novel whose authors include the great-grandnephew of Bram Stoker, the author of the original “Dracula,” the novel’s publisher announced. The new book, “Dracula: The Un-Dead,” by Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt, a Dracula historian, was acquired for United States publication by Dutton Books. It is scheduled for an October 2009 release and will be the first Dracula project authorized by the Stoker estate since the 1931 film that starred Lugosi. Film rights for “Dracula: The Un-Dead” were also acquired by a group of producers that includes Jan de Bont, the director of “Speed” and “Twister.

Copyright 2008 New York Times

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

DRACULA: THE UN-DEAD

LONDON, 1912: Someone is stalking the brave band of heroes who had defeated the vampire Dracula a quarter-century ago.  Could it be the vampire that was thought to be dead and buried is yet the un-dead?

Bram Stoker’s great-grandnephew and blood descendant, Dacre Stoker, and award-winning Dracula documentarian and historian Ian Holt have sold North American-English publishing rights of the Stoker-family-authorized sequel to Bram’s classic novel for well over mid – seven figures U.S. to an alliance of Dutton U.S. (Brian Tart), Harper U.K. (Jane Johnson), and Penguin-Canada (Laura Shin) brokered by Danny Baror of Baror International and Ken Atchity, of Atchity Entertainment International, the literary manager representing Stoker and Holt. The novel will appear in October 2009.

Laura Shin, senior editor of Penguin-Canada, who signed up for two additional sequels, said , “I was thrilled by this page-turning story and loved spending time with those great characters-Stoker and Holt did a fantastic job melding the old with the new, and I found the work to be a virtually seamless continuation of the original. The story has all the hallmarks of a historical novel, but with a modern sensibility that gives it wide-spread appeal.” Dutton and Harper signed a single novel deal. Although other precedent-setting foreign deals are already closed from preempts, Baror is planning to sign the bulk of world territories at the upcoming Frankfurt Book Fair.

Using Stoker family connections, the writers were able to access Bram Stoker’s hand-written notes for his novel – which, before an editor changed the title, was to have been called The Un-Dead. “Our story,” said Stoker, “includes characters and plot threads that had been excised by the publisher from the original printing over a century ago.” Dracula is one of the most recognized fictitious characters in the world, having spawned dozens of books and movies; the original novel, according to historians’ best estimates, has sold millions of copies-second only to the Bible, available in over fifty languages–and generated hundreds of millions of dollars. The Un-Dead is the first Dracula story to enjoy the full support of the Stoker clan since the original 1931 movie starring Bela Lugosi. Lugosi’s appearance in Hamilton Deane and John Balderston’s stage production of the story on Broadway in New York fifteen years after Bram Stoker’s death in 1927 sparked the original novel’s bestselling popularity.

It has never been out of print since.

AEI’s Ken Atchity, Chi-Li Wong, and Michael T. Kuciak (”Life or Something Like It,” “Joe Somebody,” “Ripley’s Believe-It-Or-Not!”) will produce the film with Blue Tulip’s Jan de Bont (”Twister,” “Speed,”
“Minority Report”), and are expecting to see it go before the cameras in June ‘09. The script has been completed by Ian Holt with the story co-written by Alexander Galant, who are both managed by AEI and agented by Ron Gwiazda and Amy Wagner at Abrams Artists.

Both Stoker and Galant are Canadian, though Stoker now lives in the U.S. and Holt, who has visited Dracula’s Castle in Transylvania and is a member of The Transylvanian Society Of Dracula, lives in Long Island, New York.

What’s it like to be related to someone whose singular work of Dracula is so famous and has impacted the film industry and a certain time of year so much?

To be honest I am very proud, but humbled at the same time. The history of the book is pretty tragic, Bram died before the book became popular. F.W, Murnau stole Bram’s story for his 1921 film, “Nosferatu.” The family sued and all prints of the film were ordered destroyed, luckily a few survived.  But that unfortunate incident led the family to become so jaded that they never renewed the copyright and never received any royalties from any of the films about Dracula ever made.  When the family lost the rights they also lost control of Bram’s characters.  Hollywood and novelists, because the book is in the public domain, have cannibalized and bastardized the original story and characters so much over the last century, that Bram’s genius original vision, except to the die hard fans, has practically been lost to generations.

Eartha Kitt passed away on December 26th after a two-year long struggle with colon cancer.  The singer/actress/dancer was 81 and still performing.  She can be remembered for her hit recording “Santa Baby,” which went gold just before her passing, and for her portrayal of Catwoman in the original Batman television series.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family, friends, and fans.

Eartha Kitt as Catwoman

Merry Christmas, Dracula fans!  Our best wishes to all of you!

From Author Ian Holt:

Why did you become a writer and what do you hope readers take away from this book?

Teachers told me from the time I was a little boy that I had a great imagination and writing skills and that I should become a writer.  I started out as an actor and was in the late, great Stella Adler’s last acting class through NYU’s Tisch School Of The Arts before she retired. In that class as part of Adler’s method we learned how to break down a play and create our own character backstories. I became fascinated with story structure, character development and expanding plays beyond what was on the page. This lead to me writing my first screenplay which was optioned. After that I was hooked on writing.  With acting you are always a small cog in a much bigger wheel, but writing allows you to control your own work’s destiny. When writing you are the boss. The UN-DEAD is my first attempt at writing a novel. Also, I hated the regimented world of 9-5 work and writing is my way of living life and earning a living on my own terms. Writing is freedom.

I hope people take away from this book the TRUE Dracula story as Bram envisioned it — an amazing and visionary tale of Gothic horror and romance that holds a mirror up to our society’s shortfalls and repression — and leave behind the films other than a few which have turned Dracula and Bram into a farce.

From Author Dacre Stoker:

How did you decide to write the sequel?

 In College I chose to do a research paper on Bram and his possible motivations to write the story. I had seen so many film versions of Dracula and very few had any resemblance to Bram’s original novel. Because the novel was so good and had stood up so well over the years, I found it really sad that all the trash Hollywood had put out had really sullied Bram’s and the family’s literary legacy.

 Many years later, I met an interesting character, Ian Holt, a screenwriter who had been obsessed with Dracula since he was a  child. Ian had traveled to Transylvania and actually spent the night in the ruins of the historic Prince Dracula’s Castle in the town of Poenari. Ian was a  speaker at Dracula ‘97 in LA — the celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the release of Bram’s novel

 Ian’s story ideas for a sequel to Bram’s work really sparked a lot of those old feelings I had when I did my college paper.  Ian and I decided to work together to reestablish the Stoker lineage and vision of the story by resurrecting Bram’s original themes and characters just as Bram conceived them over a century ago. Our intent is to give both Bram and Dracula back their dignity.  Maybe even more important is to give the novel’s legions of loyal fans what they have been waiting over a century for…  the return of the REAL Dracula

We are awaiting final editor’s notes on the manuscript from Dutton U.S./Penguin Canada/Harper U.K. which should be coming any day now. The due date is February 15th and then we go to galley print! This maybe old hat to you novelists out there, but for Dacre and I it’s pretty exciting since The Un-Dead is both of our’s first novel.

Famed comic book artist GRAIG F. WEICH (Spider-Man, Spawn) of www.BeyondComics.tv and the biggest selling independant comic book of all time Civillian Justice (yes, we’re working on the movie script now) has completed a superbly excellent piece of art for The Un-Dead. It’s top secret so all I can say it is key to a major plot point and appears in the epilogue. Graig knocked it out of the park! Thanks, Graig. Look for more cross-overs coming soon with Graig’s ultra-cool comic book chic/geek website.

Dacre and I are also putting our merchandise and licensing company together so look for cool Dracula/Bram Stoker/Undead gear in the Dracula’s Treasure section of this website coming soon.

An American icon passed away yesterday.  We all knew her, we all loved her, and we will always remember her.  Bettie Page, you will be missed.

Bettie Page

Few would contest that the Count is the head honcho of vampire films, but what about the non-Dracula films–which ones do you like, which ones do you hate?  More importantly, which ones would you recommend??

Like:

I’ll try and keep my “choices” limited to films that may or may not have hit the mainstream moviegoer’s radar.  The movie I would recommend highest to the vampire fan would probably be Shadow of the Vampire, starring John Malkovich and Willem Dafoe, along with a myriad of other great talent.  Technically, it could be argued that Shadow was actually a Dracula movie because it is a chronicling of the “real” events that took place during the filming of the original Nosferatu.  Nosferatu was, as we all know, the first film version of the book Dracula.  However, Shadow makes no claims that its vampire, Shreck (played by Willem Dafoe), is the same as Dracula.  The story is powerful and, like all good vampire films, adds a bit of humanity to the villianous blood-sucker.  I prefer the vampire flicks that add a further level to the vampire than just “I’m thirsty for blood,” and Shadow does just that.  It also gives a glimpse into the fledgling film industry.  If you haven’t seen it, check it out.

Shadow of the Vampire, with Willem Defoe and John Malkovich

Dislike:

I think I’ll save this for a rainy day.  Plus, even though there are lots of bad vampire movies out there, most of them still have at least one or two redeeming qualities.  I’ll leave this one up to y’all out there in the web.

Recommendation:

Find a vampire movie and watch it.  Doesn’t matter which one.  Report back here with your findings.  Remember, not all vampire movies are horror films; try looking in your comedy section, or anime, or science fiction.  There are even some children’s movies with our favorite denizens of the night in them (you all remember The Monster Squad, right?)!

The Monster Squad!

(post edited by Jason, 12-11-08 3:39am)