The new Dracula movie being produced by cult horror company Blumhouse and Miramax has officially been axed just three weeks before shooting was due to start. Mina Harker, as the film was titled, was set to reinvent Bram Stoker’s classic gothic novel for the modern age, focusing on the female protagonist and love interest famously played on screen in the past by actresses including Winona Ryder. The new take on the well-known story was set to be helmed by The Invitation director Karyn Kusama, while Emmy-award winner Jasmine Cephas Jones was due to play the titular heroine.
Now, according to Deadline, production on Mina Harker has been cancelled with just weeks to go before the start of shooting. The film was deep into pre-production, with a screenplay penned by Phil Hay and Manfredi that would see a modern day Dracula going by the name of Vladimir. Crew members on the film were reportedly informed just hours before the news of the film’s cancellation broke. Miramax is said to have exited the project due to “creative differences with the filmmaker.”
While the news of the film’s cancellation will be upsetting to many horror fans, Mina Harker is not the first adaptation of the dark vampire thriller, and it certainly wouldn’t have been the last. Nicolas Cage has recently wrapped filming on his version of the blood-thirsty villain, in the similar Dracula spinoff, Renfield, which focuses on the vampire’s under-appreciated servant. Blumhouse, meanwhile, will move forward with the production company’s other projects in the works, including a secretive reboot of The Thing and a remake of The Wolfman set to star Ryan Gosling. Mina Harker may not be coming to theaters any time soon, but Blumhouse’s horror future remains as eternal as Dracula himself.
Source: Deadline
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Author: Elliott Griffiths
