Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, the brilliant minds who gave us Sherlock, are bringing the same treatment to Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
The project is in the very early stages of development, as Moffat wraps up his tenure on Doctor Who. Gatiss has also served as a writer on Doctor Who.
Dracula is a Gothic horror novel written by Bram Stoker in 1897. It tells the story of the eponymous vampire who makes his way from Transylvania to England with plans to spread his undead curse. The novel has been adapted and interpreted countless times for the theater, film, and television.
More recently, Count Dracula was unsuccessfully brought to the big screen in the 2014 flick Dracula Untold. The movie was meant to pave the way for a Universal Monster cinematic universe. Universal Studios is going at it again with the ‘Dark Universe,’ recently announcing Dracula as part of their roster once more.
This new Dracula will use the same format as Sherlock, releasing as a miniseries-length run of feature-length episodes. Whether this version will bring the iconic bloodsucker to modern times or remain in the Victorian era remains to be seen. The former seems likely, however, as Moffat famously adapted two 19th century literary characters (Sherlock Holmes and Henry Jekyll) for the present day.
Sherlock, which aired its fourth series earlier this year, was a huge success around the globe. It also propelled its leads, Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, to international stardom.
There are no plans for the fifth series of Sherlock at the moment, as both Cumberbatch and Freeman’s slates are a bit full. However, Moffat and Gatiss have not ruled out the possibility of eventually returning to the show.
