Sweet Music! Dracula to Return to Broadway...with Anton Chigurh?

I haven't been dealing too much in horror industry news anymore, in part because there are others who are so much better at it, but this tasty little tidbit was just too tantalizing to pass up! The New York Post's Broadway reporter Michael Riedel broke the news this morning that producers are in talks to revive the classic 1927 John Balderston/Hamilton Deane stage production of Dracula--and are angling for their lead to be none other than Javier Bardem.

To call this casting inspired is to make a colossal understatement. Bardem--best-known for his chilling turn in the Coen Bros.' No Country for Old Men--is, in the opinion of this blogger, an absolutely and outstandingly perfect casting choice. Now, keep in mind, we're talking about the adapted stage version, not Stoker's original story.

As we all know, the role was originated in '27 by Bela Lugosi, who took it from the Great White Way to the silver screen in 1931--in a movie I very coincidentally reviewed just yesterday. Fifty years later, it was first revived on Broadway with a young Frank Langella in the lead (Langella would also reprise the part on screen shortly thereafter). And now, more than 30 years after that, it is very possibly becoming a reality once again--although it should be noted that the Broadway producers are in contention over the rights with a group of off-Broadway producers also looking to revive the show, with an unknown as the Count and F. Murray Abraham as Van Helsing (hey, can we get Abraham to jump over to the Bardem production? Cause that would rock on an astronomical level).

I've got fingers and toes crossed big-time for this one, and I'll certainly be in the audience for it if it happens. In fact, I'll think I'm going to start saving up the $87,000 for the tickets today!

Bardem perfectly combines sex appeal, a sinister edge, and exotic Continental-ness--a similar combo to what Lugosi brought to the table. Langella, in my opinion, only succeeded in the first category, but was sorely lacking in the latter two. Who knows, if this should actually come to pass, there might be another cinematic version of the classic play in our future! Move over, Eddie Cullen--Daddy's home.

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