Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” updated by way of “Romeo & Juliet.”

By Sheldon Teitelbaum

Why another Dracula movie? Because as memorable as some of them wereand producer Greg Sims feels only gushing admiration for the evocations of Lugosi, Lee, and Langella he learned to cherish as an Army waif nurtured on firstrun features at his father's base in Okinawa—none of them, he thought, ever got it quite right.

Though Frank Langella cut a dashing figure as the venerable count in the lavish 1979 Universal remake, the film's treatment of the famed count's sensuality, thought Sims, proved both sterile and oblique. What was needed, he decided, was a movie that could almost be called DRACULA: THE LOVE STORY. And so, he satisfied a childhood ambition by giving it a try himself. He hired screenwriter Leslie King, who had written PHOTOPLAY for Francis Ford Coppola, to write the script, and Deran Serafian to direct. In the end, however, Sims called the film TO DIE FOR. He did not go with his original title because the very name Dracula would serve, he feared, as the commercial kiss of death.

Sims has tasted the cold lips of oblivion before. The first feature he produced was RETURN TO HORROR HIGH, a slasher pastiche that garnered significant critical acclaim even as it came close to succumbing at the boxoffice because of what Sims called New World Pictures’ inept distribution and promotion. After being burned on his first feature, Sims vowed that he would retain as much control as possible on his next. Sims struck a distribution deal for TO DIE FOR with independent Skouras Pictures, which plans to launch the film’s regional release in Detroit in April.

For the part of Dracula—who is never referred to as such in the film, but is instead called Vlad Tepes, the namesake of the 15th century Transylvanian ruler who inspired Bram Stoker by impaling some 30,000 victims during his career—Sims cast Brendan Hughes. A veteran of the London stage, Hughes had appeared in RETURN TO HORROR HIGH asa policeman persuaded to star in a film about a series of murders he had, in fact, first investigated.

“He's a young, English version of Richard Gere,” said Sims. “He's far younger than the Christopher Lee interpretation, which was, to my mind, the last definitive Dracula. The fact is that I wanted my Dracula to have a European flavor.”

Hughes possessed other qualities with which Sims wished to imbue his Dracula. He is young, but he is also delicately featured and capable of positing a pronounced gentleness. This was important, said Sims, because in this film, Dracula will not doom his love, Kate (played by Sidney Walsh, who has appeared in NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET PART II as well as opposite John Ritter on the ABC series HOOPERMAN) to eternal damnation as nosferatu, but will instead sacrifice himself on love's altar.

Yet Hughes’ vampire is not bereft of fangs. And to install them, Sims hired makeup and special effects expert John Buechler and his Mechanical and Makeup Imageries company. Buechler, who was responsible for noteworthy gorefests like Stuart Gordon’s THE RE-ANIMATOR and FROM BEYOND (and who has himself directed such films as TROLL, CEL- LAR DWELLER and FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VII—THE NEW BLOOD), said he was attracted to the project by a script that exuded intelligence and thatdid not mindlessly pander to the makeup transformation conventions that appear to have overtaken other vampire movies.

“Look, we've seen those things a million times, and they cost a great deal,” said Buechler. “Gregory and I decided we'd rather focus the money on a smaller number of far more effective shots.” Buechler said he had been a fan of Sims for some time, and the two had long ago professed an interest in working together at some juncture. Expressing satisfaction with the way things turned out, Buechler noted that he and Sims would soon begin exploring the possibility of doing a Frankenstein movie.

“It would be great if, eventually, we could get to rework all the Universal monsters,” he said.

Co-producer Greg Sims

Amanda Wyss, of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, plays Cella, one of Dracula's Los Angeles brides. Skouras Pictures opens the film regionally in April.

Brendan Hughes plays Vlad Tepes, the historical figure on whom Bram Stoker based “Dracula.” The film's makeup was designed by John Buechiler.