Dracula is a bit of a pet subject of mine (it was the first novel I managed to read all the way through at the tender age of 8).

I've been working on an associated project (nothing like yours Boost...I'm really looking forward to seeing how that pans out and all power to your arm). I'll make a proper announcement when I get more under my hat but I've been working on it pretty much since Christmas.

Today I was thinking about how certain aspects of the story have become or were based on classic story components.

The journey into heart of darkness, the bewitching host, the unwelcome passenger, the possessed innocent etc.

The Demeter sections could be seen as a template of sorts for stories like Alien , Lucy's story is largely replicated in The Exorcist.

The Castle Dracula sections remind me of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

I was racking my brains trying to think of other stories which replicate the end of Dracula.

It's the most neglected section in terms of film and television adaptations, only really Coppola's and the Louis Jordan television version even attempt to chase the villain back to his fortress.

Any thoughts?

^I suppose you could have a really bleak film or for a twist see it from the Vamp's point of view and keep the same ending.

This is sort of what I've been working on but also including various audio dramas and musical sources.

I've been trying to tie in about 50 different video sources too so it will take a very long time but thanks for posting that Boost. 

It proves that it could possibly work.

Watched Drakula Istanbu'da on Friday, fun but utterly bizarre.

Dracula's servant looks like he's wandered straight off the set of The League Of Gentlemen.

Going to try out Zinda Laash in the week which looks fun too.

(Don't know why I'm whispering how do I get they type to go bigger in this post?)

Dracula is a bit like the Bible everyone thinks they know the story because of the films but when you actually read the book it's much more fun, horrific and weird and would make a really good film (or series of films) if shot as written.

Some way into Zinda Laash now and it's a real scream.

Made in Pakistan in the 60's they did away with supernatural elements (it caused a big enough ta'do anyway so upsetting the national religion was right out) so instead our Lollywood Drac starts out as a scientist trying to create an immortality serum.

Other than that it's a contemporary (for the day) reshoot of Horror Of Dracula but with song and dance numbers thrown in.

It even samples the score of the Hammer film now and then.

Drac himself is very good (looking rather like Christopher Lee at times).

Not having a castle (just a very big mansion with some charming paintings of owls and bats) it's surprising how effective it is at times.

The film was almost banned until the distributors pointed out that the original was showing pretty much everywhere anyway.

They cut some of the dances out which was a shame back then because they are really fun and it became a bit of a sensation (the first film which was adults only and it apparently gave some lady a heart attack).

Looking forward to seeing the rest.

It's a book of four parts.

Harker In The Castle.

Whitby And The Bloofer Lady.

Renfield, Mina And The Carfax Boxes.

Chasing Down The Count.

The first three parts are strong and have turned up in many adaptations.

The last part reads as a bit of an anti-climax but ironically it could play out well on screen, though nobody has yet really achieved this.

The other frequently overlooked aspect of the book is poor Quincey Morris.

When I was a child the idea of throwing in a Texan horse riding, sharpshooting, bowie knife wielding action hero into a gothic horror story was so full of potential and he is the real hero because he gives his life to avenge Lucy and save Mina but other than Coppola's version he never gets much of a look in and even he doesn't know what to do with him.

The last section would make for a bizarre Paprika Hendl Western with Quincey as the hero (which is why I was looking at Tombstone over the weekend).

Nosferatu with a Jazz Score? Which version did you watch I have the BFI version with a score by Hammer composer James Bernard, there are many versions available with different scores.

Of the various versions I've owned over the years the BFI one is in my view the best, restoring the tints makes some sense of the day for night scenes and the reconstructed captions with their exotic typography really adds to the experience.

The score is really good too.

Bernard repeats his trick of spelling out the title in the main theme like he did with his Dracula score.

Drac-Ul-La! It's bloody, Drac-Ul-La!

Nos-Fer-A-Tu!

I finally managed to get hold of the official Drakula Istanbul'da DVD release.

I should explain that up until recently I thought this film had never received one so I was only familiar with the really gray television capture (with annoying pink ident in the corner) version which can be seen on places like Youtube.

But later I found it had got a release but was out of print.

It was really difficult to track down an affordable copy (sometimes it trades for forty quid and there is no way I was going to pay that much for a pristine version of what was essentially a video curio).

Thank the gods I didn't.

First they seemed to have tracked down the worst print in existence, the cracks and scratches were much more clear than the image itself.

There are so many thick scan lines it looks like it was filmed off a 1930's Pye television screen and for large chunks of the film it looks like whoever was scanning the film had nipped out for a Turkish cigarette (used in great numbers to produce the mist and fog effects in the film) and let the film jump rails so the top of the picture ends up down at the bottom of the screen.

It almost looks deliberate.

Add on top of that the worst case of digital artifact block fog and you have my candidate for the worst official DVD release ever.

While the film isn't our favourite space saga, it is of some cultural importance especially to Drac film fans.

It has so many firsts like the first time that Dracula is seen with his classic fang shape, the first adaptation to carry the baby in the bag over from the novel, the first to show Dracula climbing down the Castle wall...it also has the fore-mentioned servant, which while clashing with the novel (to the point of rendering key scenes reasonably faithfully carried over from the book nonsensical) it did preempt the Hammer series doing much the same thing by many years.

The next two films on my to do list are the Paul Landres films The Vampire and The Return Of Dracula.

Hopefully they will be better served than their Turkish cousin.

Let's see.

Dracula : I've long wished Charles Dance would play him, he could still play old Drac but it's difficult to tell what make up and a bit of digital trickery would do to make him into his rejuvenated form. Christopher Eccleston could do the job well I think, he has the cheek bones. Maybe Jason Issacs too.

Harker : Guy Flanagan

Mina : Jessica Brown Findlay.

Lucy : Carey Mulligan.

Van Helsing : Stellan Skarsgard

Arthur : Dan Stevens.

Jack : Benedict Cumberbatch

Quincey : Kevin Alejandro

Renfield : Rafe Spall.

Rutger is despite his age, still too obviously physical to be the Prof.

His acts of physical violence should be a surprise.

I would have thought Fassbender too young to play younger Drac but there again :

He was a very dodgy Arthur in the very dodgy Marc Warren version.

He was good though and a few years extra on him and a remotely faithful script would work wonders.

The thing about Quincey for me is he has to be physically attractive.

Lucy is given a variation on the judgement of Paris.

Jack represents wisdom.

Quincey represent masculine beauty and physical strength.

Arthur represents wealth and social position, it's clear what Lucy is interested in most (but a Count always trumps a Lord).

The Count is like Lucy's soppy girl dream come true.

With him she gets all three at once but with a terrible price.