The Dracula-inspired movie The Bride has officially found its latest star. On Monday, it was announced that Thomas Doherty (Gossip Girl, High Fidelity) has been lined up to star alongside Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones, Army of Thieves) in Screen Gems’ upcoming horror epic, which is expected to take a modern approach to the Dracula mythos. Doherty will be replacing TRON: Legacy actor Garrett Hedlund, who apparently recently moved on from the film. Additionally, it was announced that Hugh Skinner (Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, Fleabag), Sean Pertwee (Gotham, Elementary), Courtney Taylor (Insecure, After After Party), Alana Boden (I Am Elizabeth Smart, Humans), and Stephanie Corneliussen (Mr. Robot, Legends of Tomorrow) have all joined the film in currently-unknown roles.
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The film will tell the story of young woman invited to a lavish destination wedding in England, only to realize her presence at the wedding has sinister motivations. Jessica M. Thompson will direct with Blair Butler penning the original script, based on her pitch, with revisions by Thompson. Emile Gladstone is producing the project. Previous reports had indicated that Screen Gems was seeing the film as a priority, with a goal of potentially launching a franchise.
This is just one of several Dracula-related projects that are currently in the works, with Jennifer’s Body director Karyn Kusama and Eternals director Chloe Zhao both working on completely unrelated takes on the iconic story. Zhao’s is described as a “sci-fi Western take” on the source material, while Kusama’s has been touted as a more straightforward adaptation.
“I love that you have the question mark at the end — a ‘sci-fi Western’?” Zhao recently joked with Variety. “No, I like that. It’s just like looking at Jessica Bruder’s book [Nomadland], and to really see behind the pages, to discover the meanings behind each page and the essence of it. I’m a huge fan of the book. And I wanted to see what essence I can find [in Dracula], and then be able to reimagine this really beloved character I love so much.”
“It’s a fairly faithful adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel,” Kusama revealed to The Kingcast. “I think something that gets overlooked in the adaptations of Dracula in the past is the idea of multiple voices. In fact, the book is filled with different points of view. And the one point of view we don’t get access to, and all most adaptations give access to, is Dracula himself. So I would just say in some respect, this is going to be an adaptation called ‘Dracula,’ but it’s perhaps not the same kind of romantic hero that we’ve seen in the past… in past interpretations of Dracula.”
What do you think of the latest cast members of The Bride? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
h/t: Deadline
