Dracula 2000
Short description
A gang of technically skilled thieves breaks into a secure vault beneath a London antiques business, expecting to find valuable art. Instead they come away with a sealed coffin that has stayed shut for about a century. What they release is Count Dracula, who finds himself loose in the modern world.
The film is directed by Patrick Lussier, and it was the first feature he directed, released in the same year as The Prophecy 3: The Ascent. Joel Soisson wrote the screenplay and produced with W.K. Border. Gerard Butler plays Dracula, with Christopher Plummer as Matthew Van Helsing, the antiquarian guarding the coffin, Jonny Lee Miller as his assistant Simon Sheppard, Justine Waddell as Mary Heller, Vitamin C as Lucy Westerman and Jennifer Esposito as Solina.
Made for a budget of 28 million US dollars, the film took about 47 million US dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds a rating of 4.9 out of 10 from roughly 39,000 votes, and on TMDB 5.2 out of 10 from 771 votes. A critics' rating of 3.8 out of 10 from 70 reviews sits below both audience scores. Lussier went on to direct two further films in this series, Dracula II: Ascension and Dracula III: Legacy.
What's left behind the scenes
- On the very first day of filming, Gerard Butler (who played Dracula) approached director Patrick Lussier and said he hadn't realized they would be filming so late at night. Lussier replied that it was a film about Dracula, so it was logical that it would be filmed at night.
- Scott Derrickson once recounted how he came to participate in the project. Harvey Weinstein called him one day and told him he had recently acquired the script for a horror film called "Dracula 2000." Derrickson inquired about the quality of the material, and Weinstein replied that the script was simply awful, and that he had bought it because of the title, which he felt had good potential. Derrickson made revisions to the script, but Weinstein didn't like his version, and he decided to enlist the services of Ehren Kruger for another script revision.
- In one scene, Johnny Lee Miller's character says, "Don't mess with antique dealers" (the original wording was more crude). The actor said this line as a joke on set, but director and screenwriter Patrick Lussier liked it so much that they decided to turn it into a line for one of the characters.
- According to Gerard Butler, he had a lot of trouble with the prosthetic vampire fangs. During the filming of the corresponding scenes, they often bit the necks of his scene partners, and irritated his own gums.
- It proved difficult to find an actor for the role of Dracula. Gerard Butler was cast when all the other members of the film's cast were already in Toronto, awaiting the start of filming.
- Gerard Butler had long hair and a beard because he had recently filmed the miniseries "Attila the Hun" (2000). He thought they would suit Dracula as well, but the producers objected. They wanted Dracula to be clean-shaven.
- The DVD release of the film includes several deleted scenes. For example, it contains a longer version of the scene in which Van Helsing and his assistants trap Dracula in London. Initially, the film was supposed to begin with this scene. There's also an alternative version of the scene where Dracula attacks Jeri Ryan's character at the plane crash site. This version shows him rising from the swamp behind Ryan. Here, he also says the line, “There are things worse than death,” which was only heard at preview screenings. And there's a more extensive and dramatic version of the scene in which Dracula talks to Jesus and explains why he feels he was betrayed.
- Van Helsing's firm, which specializes in antiques, is called Carfax Abbey. The same name was used for the mansion that Dracula moved into in the novel of the same name (1897) by Bram Stoker.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
