“I work with Wes Anderson often, and he likes to use miniatures, and he does it pretty liberally,” Roman says.
Columbia Pictures, Bram Stoker's Dracula is a 1992 American gothic horror film directed and produced by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. From Saint Maud to The Wicker Man we've rounded up some of our favorite British horror movies that are guaranteed to keep you looking over your shoulder for weeks to come. That said, the least said about some of the performances, the better: Winona Ryder is an actress that I've never taken to so anything she delivers doesn't really work for me and as Harker, Keanu Reeves is plain woeful. His portrayal of the famous professor is zealous and lively, and touched with an eccentricity that makes him an interesting and welcome presence in the film. [8] In the months leading up to its release, Hollywood insiders who had seen the movie felt Coppola's film was too odd, violent and strange to succeed at the box office, and dubbed it "Bonfire of the Vampires" after the notorious 1990 box-office bomb The Bonfire of the Vanities. This luscious film restores the creature's nobility and gives him peace.

[65] Bram Stoker's Dracula is significant in the way that The Exorcist and The Shining were significant, in showing that a horror story can be worthy of an A-list cast and production values, and that a truly imaginative filmmaker can take even a story as hoary as Dracula and give it a new lustre. There is a fastidiousness about Oldman's methods of inhabiting a character that makes you wonder if there is anything as an actor that is beyond his grasp. Ryder initially brought the script (written by James V. Hart) to the attention of Coppola. Adaptation of Bram Stoker's classic vampire novel. He's absolutely superb. Horror. That’s when I became excited about the idea of [having] this story 100 percent shot in soundstages and not only using illusions and magic, and effects, but using effects as they were done at the turn of the century, which was in-camera.”. .cls-2{mix-blend-mode:screen}.cls-3{fill:none;stroke:red;stroke-miterlimit:10;stroke-width:4px}.cls-4{fill:red}. As sunset approaches, Dracula's carriage arrives at the castle, pursued by the hunters. At night, Van Helsing and Mina are approached by Dracula's brides. “The only movie that I really spent a lot of money on, and went way over budget, was Apocalypse Now.”. “I was going to be second unit [director], and we wanted the effects and second unit all to be one group effort, and do that stuff live. This focus on the classical principles of stagecraft and magic, reverse photography and compositing images with a forced perspective, is the secret of Bram Stoker’s Dracula’s lingering appeal. Narrative-wise, the visually sumptuous story recaptures the forlorn, doomed love story and writhing sensuality of the original text that most adaptations leave out but Winona Ryder never smolders with his costars.

Meanwhile, Anthony Hopkins doesn't fare much better as Van Helsing. Dracula isn't a monster movie in the vein of 'American Werewolf in London', it is however one of the most obscurely romantic films you could want to watch. Rotten Tomatoes's consensus cited "some terrific performances", although Reeves's performance has been widely criticized. Wilmington, Michael (November 15, 1992). Bram Stoker’s Dracula is at its best when it drinks deeply from its dreamlike environment and atmosphere, capturing the base dread in Victorian culture of suddenly being confronted by what it deemed irrational or lascivious. The cinematographer, Michael Ballhaus, gets into the spirit so completely he always seems to light with shadows." |, August 14, 2018 “That was a good one, if I may brag a little, in that it was a backwards photography [shot] with a 50/50 mirror,” Roman says in 2020.

Faugh! Under the watchful eye of director Mike Nichols, Jack Nicholson put his spin on the werewolf in 1994's Wolf while Kenneth Branagh managed to convince Robert DeNiro to take on the lead in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (also in 1994).

[56], A novelization of the film was published, written by Fred Saberhagen. [6] However, he did ask Oldman to speak seductively off camera to Frost while they were filming a scene in which she writhed alone in her bed in ecstasy. It stars Gary Oldman as Count Dracula, Winona Ryder as Mina Harker, Anthony Hopkins as Professor Abraham Van Helsing, and Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker. To accomplish this he filmed on sound stages to avoid potential troubles caused by inclement weather. Be that as it may, when Ryder first piqued Coppola’s interest in making a Dracula movie, which as it turned out was a favorite novel from his youth, he knew the studio would never agree to his first inclination: As with going to the jungles of the Philippines on Apocalypse Now or Sicily in The Godfather, Coppola initially imagined shooting Dracula in Transylvania and inside actual crumbling castles. Raised on cinema classics that ranged from…, BBC/Netflix Dracula’s Behind-the-Scenes Set Secrets, Talalay’s Terrors! Actors that played Dracula multiple times, Live action adaptations of Stoker's novel, A look inside Hollywood and the movies.

Soon they fade away into darkness as Oldman’s predatory eyes appear on the horizon. In 2015, a Blu-ray version of Bram Stoker's Dracula, remastered in 4K, was released. [71] Oldman's Dracula featured in Forbes's list of "Hollywood's Most Powerful Vampires",[72] as well as The Guardian's "10 best screen vampires". 'I never say never! Just needed a few minor things to get up to speed. As Francis more openly admits in recent years, when Ryder first approached him with a draft of James V. Hart’s script for Dracula, it was about a gushing love story between the dashing Count and Mina Murray Harker.
American Zoetrope, Surround, Dolby Digital, Dolby A, Dolby SR, Free Movies Online: 200 Fresh Movies to Watch Online For Free, 50 Fresh Scary Movies and TV Shows to Watch on Netflix, February 20, 2020 “The movies that were much more points of reference are a touch later, but still drawing on the same principles,” Roman says when we mention early cinema pioneers, including Georges Méliès.

In fact, the entire opening sequence is not in the novel. Dracula Wiki is a FANDOM Movies Community. Normally, Hopkins delivers strong work but he absolutely hams it up here with another poor grasp on an accent that he simply can't get his tongue around. [16], Coppola said of his casting choice: "We tried to get some kind of matinée idol for the part of Jonathan, because it isn't such a great part. “I knew the studio would be a little leery of getting this director with three names to do this Dracula picture, and possibly go off to Romania, and it’d be a Heaven’s Gate scenario, or Apocalypse Now scenario, so I played into that. One of my pinball buddies picked this game up from an operator where it had been sitting for some time.

|, June 12, 2019 For Carpathian art direction, set design and costuming (the vermilion leather ripples on Dracula's battle armor, etc. [6][11] Winona Ryder found the intensity of Oldman's acting style too much at times; the two fell out early in the filming process and had difficulty working together from then on. Compare this performance with other movies…. “It’s hard to imagine that will ever happen again, latent image matte painting. Dracula's deepest problem is that for all its playing with the history of the genre, it stirs little sense of dread, barely even a tingle of uncanniness. And one of the first things Roman and his team did was curate a film reel, or “visual library,” of all the points of reference from classic cinema they could use as inspiration. He still recalls boyhood days spent at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Magic store and San Francisco’s House of Magic, learning the trade of visual trickery, such as John Pepper’s “Pepper’s Ghost,” and staying up to watch Paul Michael Glaser in the 1976 TV movie The Great Houdini. With baroque glee the movie begins not in 1897 but 1462.

| Fresh (41) "[6] See the Box Office tab (Domestic) and International tab (International and Worldwide) for more Cumulative Box Office Records. Sitting before Roman Coppola’s second unit camera was a 50/50 mirror, the kind that was once commonplace in any illusionist’s magic shop, but which hadn’t seen the inside of a Hollywood studio in decades. Screen Rant

", Rosenbaum, Jonathan (November 19, 1992).

He said that about the main reason why his younger self said yes to the role: "It was an opportunity to work with Coppola, who I consider one of the great American directors. [1][2][3] It stars Gary Oldman as Count Dracula, Winona Ryder as Mina Harker, Anthony Hopkins as Professor Abraham Van Helsing, and Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker. It's a journey into the regions beyond the known, wherein the forces of darkness thrive and survive; a cinematic experience you'll not soon forget, courtesy of Coppola, a superlative cast, and the magic of the movies. And a few years before Jurassic Park changed movie effects forever, Roman and his father were in that space, filming Reeves, Hopkins, and the rest approaching on horseback an enormous looming castle… which was created by Michael Pangrazio and Craig Barron by painting it on matted glass. [6][8], Dracula's armor on display at Coppola's winery in California, Coppola chose to invest a significant amount of the budget in costumes in order to showcase the actors, whom he considered the "jewels" of the feature. Adaptation of Bram Stoker's classic vampire novel. [58][59] In 2018, IDW Publishing collected all four issues and released them in a trade paperback. : Quick Bites: Bet You Thought Bela Lugosi's Neck Biter Was True to Bram Stoker, Old Books Such as "Dracula" Are in Winona Ryder's Blood, FILM; Neither Dracula Nor Rumor Frightens Coppola, Coppola's 'Dracula' A Hit on First Weekend, How To Be A Hot Vampire For Halloween This Year, Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves, Really, Really Love Each Other, 'Bram Stoker's Dracula' at 25: Would Gary Oldman return as the blood-sucker? The Essential DanMachi Moments, Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the Seduction of Old School Movie Magic. The single member of the cast who seems to struggle a bit with characterization is Keanu Reeves, as Jonathan Harker; he gives a passable performance, but fails to ever get a firm grasp of the character. Bram Stoker's Dracula is a 1992 American gothic horror film directed and produced by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. Den of Geek Celebrating Eiko Ishioka's extraordinary costumes for Bram Stoker's Dracula, Coppola's Bite: Remembering "Bram Stoker's Dracula" on Its 25th Anniversary, The 100 Greatest Horror Movies of All-Time, The 25 Greatest Movie Performances from the Last 25 years, The Simpsons's best Treehouse of Horror Segments, The Five Greatest Segments From 'The Simpsons' 'Treehouse of Horror' Episodes, The Encyclopedia of Japanese Horror Films, Aspecte ale relaţiilor matrimoniale munteano-maghiare din secolele XIV-XV [Aspects of the Hungarian-Wallachian matrimonial relations of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Castlevania Season 2 Easter Eggs and Reference Guide, Castlevania Season 1 Easter Eggs and Reference Guide, Movies You Might Have Missed: Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement's What We Do in the Shadows, Watch Jemaine Clement and the Funny Vampires in 'What We Do in the Shadows' Trailer, Vampire mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows heading for cult status. The site's consensus reads, "Overblown in the best sense of the word, Francis Ford Coppola's vision of Bram Stoker's Dracula rescues the character from decades of campy interpretations—and features some terrific performances to boot. Inspired by the photo, the Count imprisons Harker and sets forth for London on a reign of seduction and terror to find his lost love.