Dracula to be resurrected for TV by the Sherlock team

Brilliant news for fans of supernatural horror – Sherlock showrunners Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss are reuniting to give Dracula similar treatment.

When Moffat and Gatiss met, they realised very quickly they had a collective interest in comedy and horror, with shared memories of Carry on Screaming and The Wicker Man.

“It was an easy thing” said Gatiss at the BFI Radio Times festival earlier this year, “we fell into each other’s company. A love of horror and comedy, the way we were. A healthy scepticism and sense of humour.”

He confirmed then that he would be working with Moffat again – who, at the same festival, teased us with his enthusiasm for working with Gatiss on a new project “to be at the beginning of something … that feeling of being at the start of a new show”.

And it seems those early shared memories have now brokered another mega-cult hit-in-the-making as they team up to give us their take on the age old story of Bram Stoker’s enigmatic vampire.

Stoker’s original 1897 novel saw the beguiling Count leave Transylvania for England in search of fresh blood. With a similar format to Sherlock – a mini series of feature length episodes – might we also see a modern day British setting? And who will be tasked with resurrecting the character for the modern television audience?

Sherlock saw Benedict Cumberbatch become an international star overnight. Gatiss said: “You think it doesn’t happen but like a 30s musical, it did. Then it, and he, took over the world.”

Will they do the same for another classical actor, unknown to TV fans but making his – or her – major television debut? This is Gatiss and Moffat remember, it’s quite possible the modern take on one of fiction’s most famous creations could well bend the gender and introduce us to Countess Dracula. Wouldn’t that be great? In fact, if they don’t do it, maybe I will. But if it’s a famous face, who would it be? The opportunity to work with Moffat and Gatiss on a BBC show destined to follow the success of Dr. Who and Sherlock would surely attract the attention of A listers.

The new production of Dracula will be the first collaboration between Moffat and Gatiss since the last Sherlock in January. Having left the characters in such a happy place, they confirmed there are no current plans for a new series about Conan Doyle’s heroic detective – but would love to return to it in the future. Says Moffat: “We have a great bunch of people … it’s timing. It’s a very special thing. – we don’t want to do it unless it’s right.”

Gatiss and Moffat will write the new Dracula series, with Sue Vertue’s Hartswood Films producing. As scripts are as yet unwritten and casting some way off, the series is likely to air in 2019.

Image Credit (Top): Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images.