Although NBC’s last attempt at a vampire television series, the Jonathan Rhys Meyers-starring Dracula, ended up a flop and was cancelled after one season (deservedly too, as no vampire TV series should ever be that boring), NBC is still forging ahead with plans to mine the work of Bram Stoker. They just announced that they’re developing a new series focusing on the infamous brides of Dracula, titled appropriately enough, Brides. The show is being put together by playwright, screenwriter and comic book writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and television super producer Greg Berlanti, and NBC has given the pilot a production commitment.
Brides is being described as a “hot gothic soap drama”, and also as a “sexy reimagining of Dracula as a family drama with a trio of strong, diverse female leads, a show about empowered women and the things they do to maintain wealth, prestige, legacy — and their non-traditional family.” The show has the brides living in modern day New York City, having survived the centuries.
The three vampire brides are iconic pieces of Dracula lore, especially in the movies, but have almost never been given personalities beyond just “sexy,” beginning with the original 1931 Dracula starring Bela Lugosi, all the way to Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 version, which introduced the world to Monica Bellucci as one of the three vampiric sisters. The cheesiest (and most recent) portrayal of the brides was in 2004’s Van Helsing, where the less said, the better. They’re always just kind of there, and it could be cool to inject some personality into these iconic pop culture figures.
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Greg Berlanti are no strangers to fans of fantasy genre fiction; Aguirre-Sacasa is the Chief Creative Officer of Archie Comics, and together with Berlanti is bringing the world of Archie to life for the CW in Riverdale. Aguirre-Sacasa has also written for Marvel, and has horror cred as well; he wrote the feature remakes of Carrie, The Town That Dreaded Sundown, and the upcoming stage musical adaptation of American Psycho. Berlanti, of course, is best known as the man behind Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, and the upcoming Supergirl show.
So what do you think of this potential new series? Are you excited, are do you just wish they’d put a stake in all TV vampires already? Let us know in the comments.
HT: Deadline
