Bad news for horror fans today, as Karyn Kusama's (Jennifer's Body, Destroyer) highly-anticipated Dracula project is now dead in the water.
THR reports that the filmmaker was scheduled to begin shooting the Blumhouse and Miramax Films-backed movie next month, but the latter unexpectedly pulled out, effectively "torpedoing" the entire project. No specific reason was provided, but the issues are said to have stemmed from the usual "creative differences."
Titled Mina Harker, the contemporary retelling of Bram Stoker's classic take would have starred Jasmine Cephas Jones (Blindspotting, Hamilton) as the title character, who meets Dracula in modern day Los Angeles. In the original novel, Mina became the object of the evil Count's obession soon after he arrived to London from Transylvania, where he had kept her fiance, Jonathan Harker, prisoner for months.
Kusama's long-time collaborators Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi penned the script.
This is obviously a massive shame, and we're hoping the project won't be shelved for good. Unfortunately, the trade's report doesn't offer any suggestion that Mina Harker could be resurrected down the line.