X-Men star to lead an epic new Dracula origin movie from Léon director

DogMan/Spectre
(Image credit: Spirit Entertainment/MGM)

Dracula is making another return to the big screen as Luc Besson sinks his teeth into the immortal vampire. The director of Léon and The Fifth Element will helm the origin story based on Bram Stoker’s novel.

A starry cast is attached too, including Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and Get Out’s Caleb Landry Jones as a young Dracula. Two-time Oscar winner Christoph Waltz is also signed on, but his role is unclear at this stage.

Per Deadline, the movie will draw on the vampire’s life before he became Dracula, and in particular the ill-fated romance between Prince Vladimir and his wife. The publication says the script is "epic" and features some "potentially spectacular set pieces."

Currently, no other cast members are attached to the film, nor does it have any more plot details. However, it is expected to shoot next year, all being well. Besson’s last film was DogMan in 2023, which also starred Landry Jones.

Dracula isn’t the only vampiric film on the way in the next few years either, with Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu due out in December 2023. The film stars Nicholas Hoult, Bill Skarsgård, Emma Corrin, and Willem Dafoe, with early teases suggesting that Skarsgård will be unrecognizable in the role.

Elsewhere, Abigail is also due to hit screens soon and is about a kidnapped young girl who turns out to be a vampire's daughter. For more on these upcoming flicks and all of the other chilling films on the way, check out our guide to new horror movies out this year. 

Fay Watson
Deputy Entertainment Editor

I’m the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at GamesRadar+, covering TV and film for the Total Film and SFX sections online. I previously worked as a Senior Showbiz Reporter and SEO TV reporter at Express Online for three years. I've also written for The Resident magazines and Amateur Photographer, before specializing in entertainment.

Read more
Dave Bautista in In the Lost Lands
Dave Bautista says playing a vampire is "at the top of my list" after starring in Resident Evil director’s werewolf fantasy In the Lost Lands
Nosferatu
Nosferatu's Bill Skarsgård was so happy to shed the Orlok character when filming wrapped: "It was an immense sense of relief"
Nosferatu trailer
Nosferatu star Lily-Rose Depp shares the deep-cut detail in Bill Skarsgård's Count Orlok look that makes him so "freaky"
Bill Skarsgard as Count Orlok
Nosferatu’s Robert Eggers is directing a werewolf horror movie next because fleshy, mustached vampires weren’t enough
Lily-Rose Depp in Nosferatu
Nosferatu should "feel like a love triangle" according to star Lily-Rose Depp, albeit a twisted one
Nosferatu
Bill Skarsgard thought he would play a different role in Nosferatu as Mads Mikkelsen was attached to play Count Orlok
Latest in Horror Movies
Lady Dimitrescu and Austin Abrams
The new Resident Evil movie may have found a lead in a Euphoria star
Leatherface and Glen Powell
Glenn Powell could be taking a swing at a new Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Jai Courtney in Dangerous Animals
The first trailer for The Suicide Squad star's new serial killer movie makes Jaws look like Finding Nemo
The Bride
Maggie Gyllenhaal’s upcoming horror movie starring Christian Bale and Jessie Buckley gets delayed in big Warner Bros. shake-up
Alison Brie as Millie in new body horror Together
Alison Brie and Dave Franco's body horror with 100% Rotten Tomatoes score gets a chilling first trailer
The ghost of a young woman standing in front of a red door during the Netflix horror series, The Haunting of Hill House.
New Shudder horror starring Haunting of Hill House and Riverdale stars sounds like the perfect mix of The Craft and Mallrats
Latest in News
A screenshot from MindsEye showing a character leaning out of a car, shooting another car with a gun.
GTA veteran says the games industry needs to "get smarter" about what people actually want: "There are so many games, and I think we're starting to feel the effects"
Posing with a rifle in the Fallout 76 Ghoul update
Fallout 76's art director "had to fight really hard" so Bethesda would make the MMO's map bigger than Skyrim's
Minecraft movie image of Jack Black as steve
Don't expect Minecraft to go free-to-play anytime soon, as Mojang says "It doesn't really work with the way we built it"
Yasuke looking over the water to a shrine during sunset in Assassin's Creed Shadows
Assassin's Creed Shadows has an entire island stuffed with adorable kittens you need to check out, and it's based on an actual Japanese cat paradise
phase zero key art showing zombies in a hallway
Former Witcher 3 and Dying Light devs reveal their Resident Evil homage, complete with PS1-style fixed cameras
Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis System was only created because WB Games wanted something to combat Batman Arkham Asylum's second-hand sales, exec says