As if there aren’t enough vampires running across television and movie screens around the world, audiences have one more channel to catch them on. NBC have just ordered ten episodes of the Dracula series starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers.
The project was originally sold to NBC as a script-to-series order, which essentially means that it wouldn’t have to bother shooting a pilot or jumping through any hoops if execs liked the script – which apparently they did. Dracula will feature Meyers as one of the best-known (if not the best) vampires of all time. Coming off his long-term stint on the period drama The Tudors, it looks like Rhys will once again be stuck in time.
According to Deadline, the series will revolve around the title character and his arrival in London with the intent on revenge, under the guise of being an American entrepreneur. Instead of making good on his plans though, he meets a women who appears to be the reincarnation of his dead wife and promptly falls deeply in love.
This is the perfect role for Meyers who, even though I despise the idea of type casting, it wasn’t hard to tell back in 2004 when I saw Vanity Fair for the first time that drama was the way he should go. He offers his characters each a broody disposition that suits them well and Dracula should be no exception. It takes a certain kind of actor to portray such an iconic character and hopefully they picked the right person.
Universal TV EVP Bela Bajaria would tend to agree with my sentiment. He had the following to say about the upcoming show:
“It is a timeless tale with relevant, surprising twists and turns with the exquisite Jonathan Rhys Meyers in the marquee role.”
Besides following the vampire trend, the series is also part of the revival movement that seems to be taking place. Notably, there are two versions of the classic tale, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, currently being shopped around networks which we reported late last week.
There’s no word when the series will air but hopefully it will hit the airwaves mid-season.
Are you excited to see Jonathan Rhys Meyers back on the small screen? Let us know in the comment section below.
