NBC's bold plan to return to a more refined, ruffled era with Dracula—which boldly removes vampires from the leather jackets and police procedurals to which we've grown accustomed, and boldly plans to tell the story more or less as written—is nevertheless one of several classic literature-to-TV adaptations in the works, not to mention the fact that it has vampires in it. Sexy vampires, doing sexy things to the public domain, on NBC. And yet, now it also has Carnivàle creator Daniel Knauf attached to run it, forcing anyone who enjoyed that show to probably give this a chance.
Knauf will lend his talents for gothic imagery and knotty, supernatural mysteries involving people wearing old clothes to what has been described as "Dangerous Liaisons meets The Tudors"—even starring The Tudors' Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Dracula, to make that connection more explicit—and concerning the efforts of the titular bloodsucker to seek revenge while also seeking out the reincarnation of his dead wife. Granted, it's still a ridiculously well-worn story retold as a modern-day soap opera, but with Knauf on board, at least there's a chance it will get really weird at some point. Did Dracula have a dwarf friend? Maybe Dracula needs a dwarf friend. [via Deadline]