Demeter: A Landmark Chapter of Dracula Inspires a Horror Movie (Trailer)
This summer, discover the last voyage of the famous ship, which allowed the vampire to access the British coasts.
There are many adaptations of Draculathe story of the most famous of vampires, invented by Bram Stocker in 1897: there are obviously Francis Ford Coppola’s version, big success of 1992 at the cinema. More recently, Nicolas Cage played it in toxic boss mode by Nicholas Hoult in Renderfieldand Blumhouse prepares a new version on a low budget, by renewing the concept in the manner of what was done for The invisible Man with Elizabeth Moss.
The more or less free adaptations of Dracula follow each other, and do not resemble each other. But few are interested in one of the most mysterious passages of the novel: the Count’s boat trip between Bulgaria and England. Dracula boards the Demeter, lying in a crate of earth allowing him to keep his strength. As the journey progresses, the crew members begin to disappear. The ship will eventually run aground in Whitby, a coastal town in northern England, with the captain’s corpse strapped to the helm as the only member on board. The Count will leave the boat in the form of a wolf, leaving the mystery: we will never know what really happened at sea.
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Recently included in Steven Moffat’s mini-series, for a very bloody adaptation but quite different from what we read in the novel, this key passage from the book also inspired a horror film called The last voyage of Demeter. Stefan Ruzowitzky (Lili the little witch) was to direct it as early as 2010 for Phoenix Pictures starring Noomi Rapace and Ben Kingsley. Then Viggo Mortensen was also mentioned, at the heart of a version produced by Neill Jordan (The Descent). In the end, it’s a whole new team that concocted this Last Voyage of Demeterwhich we discover today the trailer.
The Norwegian André Øvredal (troll hunter) directed it for Dreamworks/Universal, from a screenplay eventually signed by Bragi Schut, Jr. (Escape Room) and Zak Olkewicz (Bullet Train).
In the casting, we find Corey Hawkins (Straight Outta Compton) as Clemens, the Doctor of Demeter, Aisling Franciosi (Game Of Thrones) who is stowaway on board, Liam Cunningham (also in Game Of Thrones) as the ship’s captain and David Dastmalchian (Mullholand Drive) in the skin of his second. Jon Jon Briones (American Horror Story), Stefan Kapicic (Better Call Saul), Nikolai Nikolaeff (Stranger Things) and Javier Botet (That, Mama) are also announced, without their role being specified. For the latter, there is a chance that it is to interpret the vampire, since thanks to his imposing size and his thinness, he has so far mainly embodied evil creatures in movies.
The Last Voyage of Demeter will be released in cinemas on August 23.
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