Exclusive: Hammer Films to Make a Present-Day Dracula Movie?

Hammer Films has a number of projects in various stages of development and the success of The Woman in Black means that they'll continue to release new horror films. We knew that Hammer was looking to revive a number of their old properties, but during a recent interview we conducted with Marcus Hearn, he revealed that they are planning a present-day Dracula movie:

"The company’s chairman, Simon Oakes, is talking about making a new Dracula, and setting it in present-day London. It’s fun to speculate who could step into Christopher Lee’s shoes. Just last year I would probably have dismissed the idea of another Hammer Dracula as quite far-fetched, but I think the success of The Woman in Black has opened up all sorts of possibilities."

As someone who is a big fan of the Hammer Dracula series, I'm excited at the thought of a new movie following Christopher Lee's version of Count Dracula. Of course, fans of the series know that Dracula stepped out of the period pieces with Dracula A.D. 1972, The Satanic Rites of Dracula, and The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires. I'm curious about whether the plan is for this to be the same character as the previous films or a new take on the Dracula mythology. The good thing about the previous films is that they didn't take continuity and vampire "rules" very seriously, so it wouldn't be difficult for this to be a loose tie-in.

Check back tomorrow for the rest of our exclusive with Marcus Hearn, where I talk to him about the recent release of Hammer Vault, upcoming Hammer Blu-ray releases, and searching the Hammer archives.