Renfield shmenfield: Nicolas Cage would like his own Dracula movie, please
If a movie about Dracula’s familiar isn’t a franchise starter, we don’t know what is
Aux News Nicolas Cage
How novel it seems to make a movie about Renfield, Dracula’s lowly familiar. Renfield has a lot going for it: Rob Zombie’s The Munsters’ lighting aesthetic and the director of The Lego Batman Movie. It also has Nicolas Cage playing the famed count. But one movie wasn’t enough for Mr. Cage, who already seems to regret not diving deeper into Renfield. In a new interview with Total Film (via Variety), the actor admitted that he didn’t get a complete picture of Dracula’s “psyche.” Who other than Cage would dare plumb the depths of The Prince Of Darkness’ psychology and blood addiction?
“You know, there are some minor moments here where you get to see some of the pathos in Dracula’s eyes,” Nicolas Cage said. “That made me think that maybe one day I might like to try for a whole movie where you’re really understanding the psyche of the character. I didn’t really have the time to delve into that here.”
Wow, a whole movie about Dracula? Let’s pump the breaks a little bit. Maybe after we get a couple of other movies under our belts. Dracula can come after Harker, Westenra, and Van Helsing Abraham. Once we’ve established the four protagonists, they can team up for Dracula. Though, we can’t blame Cage for wanting his own movie because the character, as he says, “is a challenge.”
“It’s been done so many times already,” he said. It’s been done very well and it’s also been done not very well. I certainly admire Christopher Lee and Frank Langella and Bela Lugosi and Gary [Oldman]. But I wanted to see if I could bring something fresh to the character. And I also kind of always knew I had to do it at some point.”
In the end, he based his version on Christopher Lee, whom he met on the set of Season Of The Witch and liked “very much.” Cage said that Lee reminded him of his father, so in the end, he based his Dracula on his dear dad, August, even though his father wasn’t a blood addict—he was an English professor. But not even a Dracula based on dad and Lee was enough. It’s all about the blood.
“More importantly than borrowing from my father, or from Christopher Lee, it’s really about the psyche of the character,” he continued. “An addiction to blood is not unlike an addiction to alcohol or heroin or sex, so I thought about how that lust can drive someone into darker dimensions.”
The trailer does set up a group therapy scene, so maybe blood addicts anonymous plays a more significant role in Renfield than we expect. We’ll find out on April 14, when Nic Cage’s daddy Dracula hits theaters.
14 Comments
The last time the A.V. Club posted about this film, I noticed a shocking amount of people don’t realize that Renfield pre-dates Guillermo. Just out here to remind people that this character has been around for awhile. In fact, Guillermo is a play on Renfield. Not the other way around.
I know this because I haven’t been able to get Leslie Nielsen shouting “Renfield!” out of my head since I was a kid.
Not enough people have read the original book. A cowboy fights Dracula!
Unfortunately, the book is boring af. It’s one of the few books I’ve ever quit halfway through.
Yes, we have Nosferatu. We have Nosferatu today!That movie is pretty lousy, but it does have some great bits.
“… even though his father wasn’t a blood addict.”[CITATION NEEDED]
I mean, if someone told me Nic Cage’s dad drank blood, I’d think, “Yeah that tracks.”
I saw coming attractions for this yesterday, and it looks fantastic. The two Nics make quite a duo. Can’t wait.
Renfield 2: Dracula Boogaloo
You might say Dracula’s blood runs in his family or something.
I really can’t wait for this! I just need it to mesh the ridiculous exaggeration of Cage’s Wicker Man with the let-hell-break-loose performance of Cage’s Mandy with the actual acting skill of, say, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call or Pig. Throw in some Face/Off or Moonstruck as applicable.Anyway, he’s a man of so many talents and no talent at all, as though he transcends our ability to perceive time, reality, and words themselves.
Nicholas Cage as Dracula looks like the best part of this movie.
I’ve seen this a couple of times around these parts, so just a reminder:It’s “pump the BRAKES”. you know, like you might do if a car is careening out of control.
This headline has just reminded me of the movie ‘Hobbes and Shaw’ and its contribution to the canon of action-movie one-liners: “Genocide, schmenocide.”