French director Luc Besson resurrects new 'romantic' Dracula

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PARIS — As a director with no affection for the horror genre, France’s Luc Besson has made a new version of “Dracula” with American actor Caleb Landry Jones in the principal role as a lovelorn incarnation of the famous vampire.

Besson, best known for “The Fifth Element” and embroiled in sexual assault allegations and financial problems in recent years, has produced what he believes is a “romantic” vision of one of the most notorious Gothic figures.

Titled “Dracula: A Love Story” and based on a relatively minor plotline in the original Bram Stoker book, the 66-year-old director puts Dracula’s search for the reincarnation of his late wife at the heart of his story.

“I’m not a fan of horror films, nor of Dracula,” Besson told Le Parisien newspaper about his production, which straddles several centuries in the life of the immortal blood-sucking count.

It was sparked by discussions with Landry Jones, the star of “X-Men: First Class”, whom Besson directed in his last film, 2023’s “Dogman”.

“I’d love to do all my films with him. He’s a genius,” Besson told RMC radio in France this week of the 35-year-old Texas-born actor.

Releasing first in France on Wednesday and then in other European and South American countries over the next month, the film is the biggest-budget French film of the year, according to media reports.

Besson’s career and personal finances took a major blow in 2017 with his hugely expensive flop “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets”, which cost an estimated $180 million and had an A-list cast that included Rihanna.

The year after, the man behind the popular thrillers “Leon” and “Nikita” faced rape allegations from the Dutch actress Sand van Roy, which he always denied.

The case was dropped without charges after a legal battle that went all the way to France’s top court in 2023.

Initial reviews for Besson’s “Dracula” are mixed, with Paris Match magazine calling it the “best horror film of the summer” while Le Figaro newspaper said it “unfortunately failed to bring fresh blood to the vampire myth.”

The original 1897 book has been adapted over a hundred times to the silver screen, with the two modern classics considered to be the 1958 version by British director Terence Fisher and a 1992 production by Francis Ford Coppola.

Another Gothic literary masterpiece, “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley, is to get another overhaul later this year in a big-budget Netflix-funded production by Guillermo del Toro which will premiere at the Venice Film Festival.