Rhys Meyers Cast as Dracula

If Jonathan Rhys Meyers seemed like an odd choice to play the future dirigible Henry VIII (even if the Tudor king really was a handsome stripling as a lad), his next role might seem to make more intuitive sense: he's been cast in a transatlantic series adaptation of Dracula in, need we say, the title role.

The new 10-episode drama is a co-production of several UK and American firms under the NBCUniversal International banner, most notably Carnival Films & Television, the company behind the huge costume drama hit series Downton Abbey. It will air here in the U.S. on NBC, which ordered a script of Dracula this month from scriptwiters Reece Pearson and Cole Haddon. They will also executive produce.

The Abbey connection may have a hand in the re-periodization of the tale. The idea is that the count travels to London in the 1890s. He poses as an American entrepreneur seeking to introduce modern technology to Victorian society, but in reality he's seeking revenge on the people who ruined his life centuries before. Of course, he falls for a girl who might or might not be the reincarnation of his lost love.

This is a separate project from Starz's upcoming Dracula series, Vlad Dracula, from Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski--that one keeps Dracula in his proper place, back in his 15th century heyday, before he became the vampire immortalized by Bram Stoker.

The interesting thing about these dueling Dracula projects is that the vampire phenomenon has now gotten so big an amorphous that there is being felt a compulsion to return to first principles.

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