Dacre Stoker, der Nachfahre des Dracula-Autors Bram Stoker, holt den Ober-Vampir zurück. Im FR-Interview spricht er über den Hype und die Auferstehung des "wahren Draculas".
Mr. Stoker, Sie sind der Urgroßneffe von Bram Stoker, dem "Dracula"-Autor. Mussten Sie sich aufgrund dieser Verwandtschaft in der Schule oft Witze anhören?
Oh, ja. Vor allem an Halloween hieß es immer: "Huhu, wer traut sich in das Haus der Stokers?" Aber alle kannten Dracula nur aus Filmen. Keiner hatte das Buch von Bram Stoker gelesen. Ich habe es selbst erst im College gelesen für eine Arbeit über seine Motive, den Roman zu schreiben. Click Here to read more ...
Tell those bayou bloodsuckers from "True Blood" to step aside, too.
More than 112 years after he first climbed out of the coffin, the world's most famous vampire is back -- and he's bloodier than ever.
"Dracula the Un-Dead," released this month in the United States, is a sequel to Bram Stoker's 1897 classic written by Dacre Stoker, the original author's great-grandnephew.
The book, co-written by Dracula historian Ian Holt, picks up 25 years after the Victorian-era monster is supposedly killed in the original and is based in part on 125 pages of handwritten notes that Bram Stoker left behind.
Monday, 19 October 2009 "When people think of Dracula they think of handsome Bela Lugosi," said Holt, a gothic type wearing a T-shirt featuring the 1920s Hungarian actor heart-throb who starred in the first Broadway play based on Stoker's book, as well as the subsequent 1931 movie.
"Dracula was nothing like that. He was old and hunched over, had hair on his palms, and bad breath," Holt told AFP in an interview.
"He was out of the grave, he smelt like death," added Stoker. "We're going back to the original characters."
It was Holt -- whose passion for the theme stems from Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 "Dracula" movie -- who initially came up with the idea of a sequel to the Irish writer's 19th century work.
In search of data, he stalked descendants of the historical Transylvanian-born Vlad III Dracula of Wallachia, better known as "Vlad The Impaler", toured Europe on the vampire's tracks, met with scholars, and joined the Transylvanian Society of Dracula.
In 2003, he said, he came up with the idea of getting backing for a sequel novel from the Stoker family, who had lost the copyright early in the 20th century.
And Dacre, one of a score of close family scattered across Britain, Ireland, Canada and the United States, signed on. "He had Bram's genes and the name," said Holt.
From then on, the two worked together, studying notes left for the original work by Bram Stoker, writing the plot and building characters.
"We go back to the original but we don't leave it at that," Stoker said.
The sequel is set in 1912, 25 years after the finale of the first epistolary novel, as a series of chilling murders in London and Paris triggers a vampire hunt across Europe and unleashes terror of "the prince of darkness."
After careful analysis of 19th century notes left by Stoker, a theatre director who minutely researched background for the original novel, the two revived one of the old characters and added in a few, including a Scotland Yard detective and a lesbian vampire countess.
More significantly perhaps, Dacre Stoker also opted to throw his ancestor into the novel.
Why create a Bram Stoker character? "He was misunderstood, mysterious, no one knows why he wrote Dracula," the great-grandnewphew said. "He died without knowing the success of his iconic character. His life was a struggle."
Talks are under way to produce a movie version of the book, though the authors refused to say who with.
But if they have their say then Johnny Depp could play Dracula and Catherine Zeta-Jones star as the blood-sucking lesbian countess.
"When people think of Dracula they think of handsome Bela Lugosi," said Holt, a gothic type wearing a T-shirt featuring the 1920s Hungarian actor heart-throb who starred in the first Broadway play based on Stoker's book, as well as the subsequent 1931 movie.
"Dracula was nothing like that. He was old and hunched over, had hair on his palms, and bad breath," Holt told AFP in an interview.
"He was out of the grave, he smelt like death," added Stoker. "We're going back to the original characters."
It was Holt -- whose passion for the theme stems from Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 "Dracula" movie -- who initially came up with the idea of a sequel to the Irish writer's 19th century work.
In search of data, he stalked descendants of the historical Transylvanian-born Vlad III Dracula of Wallachia, better known as "Vlad The Impaler", toured Europe on the vampire's tracks, met with scholars, and joined the Transylvanian Society of Dracula.
In 2003, he said, he came up with the idea of getting backing for a sequel novel from the Stoker family, who had lost the copyright early in the 20th century.
And Dacre, one of a score of close family scattered across Britain, Ireland, Canada and the United States, signed on. "He had Bram's genes and the name," said Holt.
From then on, the two worked together, studying notes left for the original work by Bram Stoker, writing the plot and building characters.
"We go back to the original but we don't leave it at that," Stoker said.
The sequel is set in 1912, 25 years after the finale of the first epistolary novel, as a series of chilling murders in London and Paris triggers a vampire hunt across Europe and unleashes terror of "the prince of darkness."
After careful analysis of 19th century notes left by Stoker, a theatre director who minutely researched background for the original novel, the two revived one of the old characters and added in a few, including a Scotland Yard detective and a lesbian vampire countess.
More significantly perhaps, Dacre Stoker also opted to throw his ancestor into the novel.
Why create a Bram Stoker character? "He was misunderstood, mysterious, no one knows why he wrote Dracula," the great-grandnewphew said. "He died without knowing the success of his iconic character. His life was a struggle."
Talks are under way to produce a movie version of the book, though the authors refused to say who with.
But if they have their say then Johnny Depp could play Dracula and Catherine Zeta-Jones star as the blood-sucking lesbian countess. Visit the Dracula the Un-Dead website.
Bram Stoker's own blood runs through the veins of a sequel to his 1897 novel "Dracula," which goes on worldwide release this month, in a work penned by his great-grandnephew who is hoping to revive the original vampire myth.
On August 16, Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt came into Los Angeles to support the first annual Vampire Con and promote their forth-coming novel DRACULA: THE UN-DEAD. Attendence was excellent for the panel they did with other experts on the continuing fascination the public has with vampires. Afterwards, they were interviewed by a Portugeuse television show, and many people visited their booth to find out more about their book. From teenaged Goth girls to college professors, it swiftly became apparent that Dacre and Ian were in their element with a crowd of other hardcore Dracula fanatics.
Marketing and Publicity at Penguin Group Canada have put together a blockbuster campaign for this exciting, historic publication!
Dracula: The Un-Dead – Penguin Group Canada Marketing and Publicity Plan Partnership with Canadian Blood Services, Yorkdale Mall, and the RandolphAcademy for the Performing Arts:
October 18, Toronto: With the help of Randolph’s dance academy, Penguin will stage a public performance of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” at Yorkdale, one of Toronto’s busiest malls, and record it forviral distribution on YouTube. The dance will be accompanied by a live, 12-person band, performing “Thriller.”
The performance of “Thriller” will draw attention to the Dracula-themed blood drive we will set up at Yorkdale, in partnership with Canadian Blood Services.
We will hand out Dracula business cards, drawing people to buy the book, and to attend the author event.
Author tour to Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto
October 25, Ottawa: Dacre will give an audio-visual presentation on Dracula, the Stoker family, and The Un-Dead at the Ottawa international Writer’s Festival, with members of the Canadian Stoker family in the audience. A blood drive with Canadian Blood Services will be incorporated into this event.
October 26, Montreal: In Dacre Stoker’s hometown – working with Paragraphe Books to do a second staged reading of The Un-Dead.
October 27, Toronto: A day of national media in Toronto and a private launch for booksellers, Dracula scholars, and the Stoker family, most likely at the richly thematic home of Bill Jamison, complete with mummy and shrunken heads.
October 28, Toronto: More media, and a public event that evening: A staged reading of Dracula: The Un-Dead at the gothically historic Bathurst Street Theatre, to commemorate similar readings given by Bram Stoker in 1897, upon publication of Dracula. The Theatre will place posters in their marquis for the month of October.
Throughout October and November, across Canada: Canadian Blood Services is eager to work with Penguin to create authorless events across the country: more Un-Dead themed blood drives to draw traffic into bookstores.
MARKETING:
Dracula blad
Advance reading copies mailing with readers response card
Outdoor advertising in Toronto for the month of October
National advertising TBC
Dracula: The Un-Dead business cards (with book and Toronto event info)
Dracula: The Un-Dead posters (for in store displays and for the Bathurst Street Theatre)
Street team promotion during the Nuit Blanche in Toronto, October 3rd
Promotional material for Nuit Blanche
Promotional material for cross-promotion with Canadian Blood Services
Contesting with Canadian Blood Services
Online Marketing and Promotion
Pre-publication trailer for use on social networking sites such as YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, and Flickr
Pre-publication e-cards highlighting bookseller endorsements and reviews from general consumers
Outreach to Penguin’s Twitter followers with contest offerings including tickets to events
Online promotion through Canadian Blood Services website / newsletter (pending partnership details)
Hero banner placement on Penguin.ca, Amazon.ca and ChaptersIndigo.ca
Featured placement in Penguin e-newsletters
Dedicated book and author feature on Penguin.ca
Solicit and link to independent Blogger reviews, generated online viral buzz
Print / mobile integrated campaign with use of ScanLife application to link to online features, interview, excerpts, etc.
Recording of an author video (possibly an event video) as part of Editor Insights on PenguinTV, a newly branded online channel on Penguin.ca
Babs says:
Dracula: The Un- Dead is an exciting gothic adventure. Owing to the exhaustive research of the authors, it is truly deserving of its status as the official Stoker sequel to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Well-loved characters are deftly “resurrected” and some new ones are introduced whom Bram described in his original notes, but cut from the final book. One dark presence, the Countess Bathory, is drawn straight from the pages of history, as terrifying and beautiful a character as can be imagined.
The story soars across destinations in Europe, via one of the first-documented long-distance airplane flights, via great ships and trains. It dips into the world of theatre, the competitive landscape of publishing and stars such as Oscar Wilde, and the burgeoning field of police detective-work. Carefully plotted and researched, it draws you into its mystery, and asks an impossible question: what is the true nature of evil? It is stylish and sexy and violent all at once.
Deb says:
A quick note to say that I’m about 200pages into Dracula: The Un-dead and am loving it! Dacre and Ian have truly captured the dark thrill and moody environment of the original Dracula. I’m finding too that The Un-dead is also true to the original characters: So here we find the weak-willed and snivelling Jonathan Harker 25 years on, an alcoholic and broken man, and Mina his loving wife whose heart and mind belong to a different time and place. And all of this against the backdrop of the dark and dangerous world of Victorian England.
And the new characters are fantastic! Inspector Cotford based on notes that Bram Stoker left…amazing! He is so gripping as the detective haunted by the Jack the Ripper murders who has now stumbled upon an even darker criminal that he could never have imagined….what can I say, I love him!
The Authors of DRACULA: THE UN-DEAD Saturday, August 01, 2009 05:11 AM Cameron & Pamela Koller Fearful Features
To scholars of gothic and classic horror literature, the idea of writing a sequel to one of the crown jewels of horror culture, Bram Stoker’s original text Dracula, must sound like literary rape of the most criminal sort. Yet, this is not the simplistic cash-in that some may accuse it of being. The duo of Stoker descendant Dacre Stoker and screenwriter Ian Holt acknowledge monetary value as a motivating factor, but have more complex goals alongside the obvious one.
Holt had initially tracked down Dacre’s uncle to tackle the project of writing a screenplay-sequel to Dracula. However, the Stoker family’s relationship to Hollywood had always been very negative, since Bram Stoker and his lawyers had failed to procure a worthwhile exchange for the book’s copyright. One search through ancestry.com later, Michael, Tim, and the family were put in contact with one another. The uncle unwilling, Holt tracked down Dacre from the next generation and set about writing a book instead over the next five years.
Copyright, as well as the deteriorating quality of Dracula’s cinematic adaptations, lie at the heart of this project’s objectives. Since Coppola’s adaptation of the story, adaptations since have abused the copyright and lost sight of what makes Count Dracula such a compelling character. With this book, Ian Holt hopes to put the rights to the novel back into the hands of the Stoker family. In addition, there are plans to found a Bram Stoker foundation with a portion of the proceeds, which will fund a bust for Stoker in Dublin and at the Lyceum Theater where he made his living to go up on the one-hundredth anniversary of his death in 2012.
Perhaps most importantly, however, the team wishes to bring a new fandom to Dracula in the wake of such vampire franchises as Buffy, True Blood, and Twilight. While there are plans to subtly update the themes of the first book, they plan to keep the core of the novel intact for this younger crowd. Plot strands left untied in the first novel will be explored this time around, with new mysteries to replace them. After all, the primary purpose of this novel for its creators is to preserve the essence of the character that is so dear to them for future generations to experience and explore.
Despite the odds and ambitions, Dracula: The Un-Dead seems destined for success. Reviews have been widely positive, even among scholars of the character. Independent sales have been successful beyond the dreams of its creators, greatly outselling Twilight in certain circles. While the process of writing was “harder than we thought,” each of them seem confident. “Hopefully, this is what people remember me by,” says Holt. “When I want something, I’m like a bull in a china shop.”
For more information, visit www.draculatheundead.com. Dracula: The Un-Dead will be released October 13th in America, with an earlier release in Europe.
Written by Cameron Koller Interview by Pamela Koller
Like all my reading lists, this one is not meant to be comprehensive, it's just to make you aware of new titles. I chose books that were (for the most part) older and considered 'literature' rather than 'horror' or 'urban fantasy'. And no, Dracula's not on it, though it's the quintessential vampire book. I figure everyone knows that one. My thanks to my co-worker, Morticia, who advised me of several of the older titles on this list.
As a side note, there's a Stoker family approved sequel to Dracula coming out in October: Dracula the Undeadby Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt. Not to be confused with a second Dracula the Undead coming out in December by Freda Warrington.
The Vampyre - John Polidori Carmilla - Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu Flowers of Evil - Charles Baudelaire (poem) Anno Dracula, The Bloodry Red Baron, Dracula Cha Cha Cha - Kim Newman The Vampyre, Supping with Panthers, Deliver us from Evil - Tom Holland Society of S, Year of Disappearances - Susan Hubbard Vlad: the Last Confession - C.C. Humphreys The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova Fat White Vampire Blues, Bride of the Fat White Vampire - Andrew Fox Let the Right One In - John Ajvide Lindqvist Nymphos of Rocky Flats, X-Rated Bloodsuckers, Undead Kamasutra, Jailbait Zombie - Mario Acevedo Bloodsucking Fiends, You Suck - Christopher Moore Touched by a Vampire - Mallory Hoffman Vampire Vow, Vampire Thrall, Vampire Transgression - Michael Schiefelbein Secret Life of Laszlo, Count Dracula - Roderick Anscombe Vamped - David Sosnowski Vampires of Hollywood - Adrienne Barbeau & Michael Scott The Hunger - Whitley Streiber Fever Dream - George R.R. Martin Agyar - Steven Brust Sunshine - Robin McKinley Already Dead, No Dominion, Half the Blood of Brooklyn, Every Last Drop - Charlie Huston
As a bonus, here are some new urban fantasy and horror novels involving vampires you may not have heard of yet:
Bloody Good, Bloody Awful - Georgia Evans The Last Vampire, Vampire Agent - Patricia Rosemoor & Marc Paoletti The Betrayal - Pati Nagle (regular fantasy) Wicked Game - Jeri Smith-Ready Dying Bites - D.D. Barant Staked, Revamped - J.F. Lewis Skinwalker - Faith Hunter Once Bitten, Twice Shy; Another One Bites the Dust; Biting the Bullet; Bitten to Death; One More Bite - Jennifer Rardin Vicious Circle - Linda Robertson
