Dracula 2000

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2009)

Dracula 2000
Movie poster
Directed by	Patrick Lussier
Produced by	W.K. Border Joel Soisson
Written by	Joel Soisson Patrick Lussier
Starring	Gerard Butler Christopher Plummer Jonny Lee Miller Jennifer Esposito Justine Waddell
Music by	Marco Beltrami
Cinematography	Peter Pau
Editing by	Peter Devaney Flanagan Patrick Lussier
Distributed by	Dimension Films
Release date(s)	December 22, 2000
Running time	99 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$28,000,000 (estimated)
Followed by	Dracula II: Ascension

Dracula 2000 (also known as Dracula 2001 in some countries^[1]) is a 2000 horror film, directed and written by Patrick Lussier. The film stars Gerard Butler, Christopher Plummer, Jonny Lee Miller, Justine Waddell, Colleen Fitzpatrick, and Jennifer Esposito.

It attempts to transfer the story of Dracula into the setting of a modern horror film. Promotionially titled Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 2000.^[1]

[edit] Plot

The film opens in 1897, with Count Dracula's voyage to England on the Demeter and his arrival in London. The narrative then moves forward to present-day London, with a group of thieves infiltrating the antique shop Carfax Abbey. Penetrating into its innermost vault they expect to find a fortune in treasure. Instead they encounter a sealed coffin. Upon attempting to move the coffin, some of the treasure-hunting party are gruesomely killed by the vault's security system, leading the survivors to believe the coffin is the treasure they have come for. The coffin is later revealed to contain the dormant body of Count Dracula. We learn that Carfax Abbey (also the name of Dracula's London residence in Bram Stoker's original novel) is owned and operated by Dracula's nemesis, Abraham Van Helsing, who, after trapping and subduing Dracula a century before, has been keeping himself alive with injections of the vampire's blood filtered through leeches until he can find a way to destroy Dracula forever.

While flying the coffin back to the United States one of the thieves manages to open the coffin, releasing Dracula. The count proceeds to feast on the blood of the thieves, one of whom happens to be flying the airplane, causing them to crash in the swamps of Louisiana. Surviving the crash, he heads to New Orleans, Louisiana, where Van Helsing's estranged daughter Mary and her best friend Lucy live. Meanwhile Van Helsing and his assistant Simon Sheppard head to the U.S. to recapture Dracula.

The one significant twist this film brings to the Dracula legend is its explanation of his origin. In this film, Dracula is established to be Judas Iscariot, cursed to walk the earth as an immortal for his betrayal of Jesus, being denied admission to both Heaven and Hell. This explains some of the vampire's best-known weaknesses, primarily Christian iconography and silver, as Judas was paid in silver for betraying Christ to the authorities. Although Bram Stoker makes no reference to a vulnerability to silver in his novel, it is a part of some examples of European vampire folklore.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Cast

• Gerard Butler as Dracula
• Christopher Plummer as Matthew/Abraham Van Helsing
• Jonny Lee Miller as Simon Sheppard
• Justine Waddell as Mary Heller/Van Helsing
• Danny Masterson as Nightshade
• Jeri Ryan as Valerie Sharpe
• Colleen Fitzpatrick (aka Vitamin C) as Lucy Westerman
• Jennifer Esposito as Solina
• Lochlyn Munro as Eddie
• Sean Patrick Thomas as Trick
• Omar Epps as Marcus
• Tig Fong as Dax
• Tony Munch as Charlie
• Shane West as J.T.
• Tom Kane as The Newscaster
• Nathan Fillion as Father David

[edit] Production

The film was produced by Dimension Films and Neo Art & Logic. Veteran horror film director Wes Craven was executive producer and his long time editor, Patrick Lussier, directed the film. Joel Soisson is credited with the screenplay, with the story by Soisson and Lussier. However, the film went through numerous uncredited rewrites by Scott Derrickson, Paul Harris Boardman and Ehren Krueger. Wes Craven and Laeta Kalogridis also polished certain scenes during post production. The film was noteworthy in the year of its release for the highly accelerated schedule it was made under. Production commenced on June 21, 2000 with an unfinished script. The film was released six months later on December 22 2000. Its executive producer, Wes Craven commented in Entertainment Weekly on how he felt the accelerated schedule had affected the making of the film. Principal photography finished at the beginning of September 2000 with additional photography commencing till the last week of October 2000. The film continued to be rewritten throughout production and post-production with the final rewritten scenes being shot late in November 2000.

[edit] Box office & reception

Dracula 2000 opened at #7 in its first week at the box office with $8.6 million. In its second week, the film had a 56.5% drop-off, staying at #8. The film grossed $33 million domestically and $14 million in foreign countries making a total of $47 million worldwide, exceeding its $28 million budget. On its initial video release it grossed an additional $32 million in the US and Canada and is still making money worldwide. Dracula 2000 was the 6th highest grossing film for Miramax/Dimension Films in 2000, exceeding the box office takes of such expensive Dimension Films releases like Reindeer Games and Impostor as well as the Miramax Film December opener for that year, All the Pretty Horses.^[2]

Critically, Dracula 2000 earned a rating of 15% on Rotten Tomatoes^[3] and 26 out of a 100 on Metacritic, with a 6.5 out of 10 user rating on the latter site.^[4] Berge Garabedian of JoBlo offered a positive review, calling it "A fun vampire movie", "a novel adaptation of an old time legend", and "[good] for pretty much anyone looking for some enjoyable bloody fun."^[5] BeyondHollywood.com wrote, "Dracula 2000 is not the worst vampire movie I've seen, but it's definitely not the best either. There are some very good moments, most of them featuring the frail Van Helsing as he attempts to battle the fast and deadly vampires. Also, I appreciated the background given to Dracula's aversion to silver, crosses, and God, as well as Dracula's 'true' origins. Not bad work, but it could have been much better."^[6]

Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "C-" score,^[7] while James Berardinelli of ReelViews panned the film, writing: "Of all the indignities to have been visited upon Dracula during the past century (including being the "inspiration" for a cereal and a Sesame Street character, and being lampooned by Mel Brooks), none is more unsettling than what has happened to the world's most famous vampire in Dracula 2000."^[8]

[edit] Soundtrack

The film's rock soundtrack (referring to the songs used in the film, not just the Compact Disc compilation of those songs) is significant for two reasons: the first being that it included the song "One Step Closer," as performed by Linkin Park, before it was released as a single and subsequently became a hit, and the second being that it included a pre-Toxicity (and, by the same measure, pre-mainstream popularity) System of a Down's cover of the Berlin classic, "The Metro".

[edit] Sequels

Dracula 2000 was followed by two direct-to-video sequels, Dracula II: Ascension in 2003 and Dracula III: Legacy in 2005. Patrick Lussier and Joel Soisson, who directed and wrote all three films, respectively, created a plot for a fourth film and discussed releasing it theatrically, but no film has yet been produced.^[9]

[edit] References to other versions

This section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (September 2007)

The movie has numerous references to both Dracula the novel and other movie versions:

• Van Helsing's business is located in Carfax Abbey, which was Dracula's English residence in the Bram Stoker novel.
• When the crashed plane is found by authorities, the dead pilot has been lashed to the yoke, in parallel to the captain of the ship Demeter, which brought Dracula to London, who was found dead and lashed to the ship's wheel.
• One of the doctors examining Solina is named Dr. Seward.
• Mary's housemate who is made a vampire by Dracula is called Lucy Westerman, in reference to Lucy Westenra, who undergoes a similar fate.

• During the Mardi Gras parade there is a giant mask of Bela Lugosi's version of Dracula.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Dracula 2000 at the Internet Movie Database
• Dracula 2000 at Allmovie

v • d • e Bram Stoker's Dracula Characters of Dracula Count Dracula • Jonathan Harker • Mina Harker • Abraham Van Helsing • Lucy Westenra • Arthur Holmwood • Dr. John Seward • Quincey Morris • Renfield • Brides Film adaptations Nosferatu (1922) • Dracula (1931) • Dracula (1931 Spanish Version) • Drakula İstanbul'da (1953) • Dracula (1958) • Dracula (1968) • Count Dracula (1970) • Dracula (1973) • Count Dracula (1977) • Dracula (1979) • Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) • Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) • Dracula (2002) • Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary (2002) • Dracula (2006) Other films Universal Horror Dracula's Daughter (1936) • Son of Dracula (1943) • House of Frankenstein (1944) • House of Dracula (1945) • Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) Hammer Horror The Brides of Dracula (1960) • Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966) • Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968) • Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970) • Scars of Dracula (1970) • Dracula AD 1972 (1972) • The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973) • The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974) Dracula 2000 Dracula 2000 (2000) • Dracula II: Ascension (2003) • Dracula III: Legacy (2005) Parodies Blacula (1972) • Scream Blacula Scream (1973) • Blood for Dracula (1974) • Love at First Bite (1979) • The Monster Squad (1987) • Waxwork (1988) • Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995) • Monster Mash (1995) Others Dracula's Death (1923) • Billy the Kid vs. Dracula (1966) • Blood of Dracula's Castle (1969) • The Halloween That Almost Wasn't (1969) • Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1971) • Zoltan, Hound of Dracula (1978) • The Halloween That Almost Wasn't (1979) • Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula (2000) • Dracula 3000 (2004) • Blade: Trinity (2004) • Van Helsing (2004) • The Batman vs. Dracula (2005) • Bram Stoker's Dracula's Curse (2006) Stage adaptations Dracula (1924) • Count Dracula (1972) • Dracula, a Musical Nightmare (1974) • Dracula (1980) • Dracula: The Musical? (1982) • Dracula (1995) • Dracula (1996) • Dracula (2000) • Dracula, the Musical (2004) Comics The Tomb of Dracula • Dracula (Marvel Comics) • Dracula (Dell Comics) • Sword of Dracula Video games Castlevania • Dracula (Castlevania) • Alucard • Bram Stoker's Dracula See also Buffy the Vampire Slayer: "Buffy vs. Dracula" (2000) • Fangland (2007) • Dracula in popular culture Alternate storylines Anno Dracula (1992)