Cinema’s premiere Count Dracula will be donning his opera cape again. Bela Lugosi had a love-hate relationship with the bloodsucking role that made him an icon. He occasionally felt straitjacketed by the horrific typecasting, but he loved the cape so much he wore it in several films including Plan 9 from Outer Space, and was buried in it. A new adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula will once again drape his form with the elegant attire. Legendary Comics will publish the original graphic novel Bram Stoker’s Dracula Starring Bela Lugosi, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The novel, which promises to faithfully adapt Bram Stoker’s supernatural classic, will feature art from El Garing and art direction from publisher Kerry Gammill. The title character will be inked to star Lugosi. Bram Stoker’s Dracula Starring Bela Lugosi was approved by the Lugosi estate.
“Bela Lugosi created his unique portrayal of Count Dracula on the Broadway stage and has become a cultural icon for his performance in the 1931 film,” Lugosi’s granddaughter Lynne Lugosi Sparks, who is CEO of Lugosi LLC, said in a statement. “This graphic novel beautifully answers the question: What would Lugosi’s performance look like in a direct interpretation of Bram Stoker’s novel? We believe Legendary Comics has proven what fans already know — Bela Lugosi is Dracula.”
“There have been great Dracula graphic novels, but to unite Bram Stoker’s novel in a faithful adaptation with the definitive Dracula in the form of screen icon Bela Lugosi is a dream come true,” Robert Napton, senior vice president of Legendary Comics, told THR.
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Further details will be unearthed during the “Legendary Comics 2019 and Beyond” panel at this weekend’s Los Angeles Comic Con. The panel will also leak information on Legendary Comics’ upcoming projects The Witches of Silverlake and Lost in Space: Countdown to Danger.
The book is being published in partnership with the Lugosi Estate and Kerry Gammill, publisher of Bela Lugosi’s Tales From the Grave.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula Starring Bela Lugosi is set to hit book shelves in late 2020.
Culture Editor Tony Sokol cut his teeth on the wire services and also wrote and produced New York City’s Vampyr Theatre and the rock opera AssassiNation: We Killed JFK. Read more of his work here or find him on Twitter @tsokol.
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