STACK NZ Jan-Feb #59

DVD&BD FEATURE

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With DRACULA UNTOLD , the opportunity to create a new origin story for the infamous vampire was the main to first-time director GARY SHORE .

G ary Shore, who until now had worked almost exclusively in advertising, admits he was a little skeptical when he was first approached to make a new movie about the infamous Count Dracula. “You look at it and you go ‘OK, Dracula, do we really need to see another Dracula film?’” However, he soon realised that Dracula Untold would offer an opportunity to take a fresh book at one of literature’s most filmed creations. Although the medieval figure VladThe Impaler – the real-life inspiration for Bram Stoker’s blood sucking count – has been explored before on film, this new project takes a more left-field approach. “I thought the way it was able to take the real character of Vlad in history and make that bridge across into mythology; was a really exciting approach,” explains Shore. “It’s a coming-of-age story, but it’s really an exploration of the idea of legacy. Vampire mythology is about legacy, about handing something down to the next person, whether it is DNA, memories or responsibility. I felt people would be able to relate and respond to the father/son idea. It continues to be the most inspiring part of the story.” In this new take on the legend, the battle-weary Vlad III (played here by rising British star Luke Evans)

thatTransylvanian prince provide him with 1,000 boys – including his own son – to serve as child soldiers in his army. Vlad reluctantly enters into a Faustian pact with an evil demon (Charles Dance) which leaves with superhuman abilities but an insatiable thirst for human blood. Although Dracula Untold takes a very different approach to the story of Dracula, the Irish-born filmmaker remains a fan

of both the original novel and film adaptations, such as Francis Ford Coppola 1992 version, which also explored the origins of VladThe Impaler. “I found Bram Stoker’s novel when I was eight years old, at the library at school,” recalls Shore. “I have no idea why it was in school but it was something I read and I was very fascinated about it. Obviously growing up in Dublin, my Dad used to always bring us down to Bram Stoker’s house, which was actually just down the road, and very close to my house, so I was aware from a very early age. And then obviously the Count in Sesame Street !” So why does Dracula remain such an iconic creation? Shore replies: “I think what really captured people’s imagination at a time when the book was written – and it is all written as a diary and prose – is that it was almost like a literary version of realityTV. People felt that they were reading this as a first person experience, and I think it was a success because of that, because there was an immersiveness. “And I think with Dracula, it has been a case of Chinese whispers, everybody has a version of that story that gets handed down and transforms over the years. Approaching this film, that is the way I had to look at it as well. We are taking the seeds within history, but we are

It’s a coming-of-age story, but it’s really an exploration of the idea of legacy

turns to the dark side when ruler of the Ottoman Empire (Dominic Cooper) demands

expanding that and making something and that grows into pure fiction.”

Dracula Untold is out out on February 4

Summer EDITION 2015 JB Hi-Fi www.jbhifi.co.nz

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