MOVIE NEWS – Oscar-winning Nicolas Cage will play a very different version of Dracula in the horror comedy Renfield.

Hollywood legend Nicolas Cage believes it was only a matter of time before he played Dracula, the Prince of Darkness. The upcoming horror comedy Renfield was undoubtedly a great opportunity for him. Speaking to Total Film, Cage revealed that he has always felt deeply connected to the Lord of the Vampires. He always felt that he would eventually bring the iconic character to life.

“The concept of Dracula, in itself, is a challenge. It’s been done so many times already. It’s been done very well and it’s also been done not very well. I certainly admire Christopher Lee and Frank Langella and Bela Lugosi and Gary [Oldman]. But I wanted to see if I could bring something fresh to the character. And I also kind of always knew I had to do it at some point.”

Cage reportedly took on the role of Dracula in Renfield immediately after his first meeting with director Chris McKay, and by their second conversation, he had worked out all the ingredients for Dracula, including the voice and mannerisms.

“I went back to Christopher Lee, in terms of his manner of speaking, but that was really only a starting point. I knew Christopher. I did a small scene with him in Season of the Witch, and I liked him very much. We had a lot of nice conversations, and he reminded me quite a bit of my father, August. So from then on, my dad sort of became the main inspiration for me.”

As well as using Hammer Horror icon Christopher Lee and his own father, Cage revealed that he approached Dracula’s need for blood as if it was “an addiction to alcohol or heroin”. Which certainly sounds like something Nicolas Cage would do.

“More importantly than borrowing from my father, or from Christopher Lee, it’s really about the psyche of the character. An addiction to blood is not unlike an addiction to alcohol or heroin or sex, so I thought about how that lust can drive someone into darker dimensions.”

Nicolas Cage’s Dracula arrives in April

Renfield is a modern monster tale about Dracula’s faithful servant. Nicholas Hoult (Mad Max: Fury Road) plays Renfield, the tortured sidekick to history’s most archaic boss, Dracula (Oscar-winner Nicolas Cage). Renfield is forced to get his master’s loot and do his bidding, no matter how degrading. But now, after centuries of servitude, Renfield is ready to see if there is life beyond the Count’s shadow. If only he could find a way to end his codependency.

The character, who first appeared in Bram Stoker’s 1897 gothic horror novel Dracula, is suddenly given a new lease of life in present-day New Orleans after falling in love with a temperamental but perpetually aggressive traffic cop.

In addition to Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult, Renfield also stars Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz and Adrian Martinez, as well as Shohreh Aghdashloo from The Expanse.

Renfield is scheduled for release on 14 April 2023.

Source: Total Film