Much More on Brad Pitt's 'Vlad' Dracula Film
Charlie Hunnam talks candidly about the story
By Robert Falconer | Saturday, December 12, 2009
On Monday we reported that Summit Entertainment — the studio behind the 'Twilight' franchise — is developing a new sort of "vampire" movie with Brad Pitt's production company. The new film is to be called Vlad, and will focus on the real life prince who served as the inspiration behind Bram Stoker's famous novel, "Dracula".Entertainment Weekly sat down with actor Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy), who wrote the script for Vlad, to learn more about just what he has planned for this new film.
"My hope when writing it was for the end result to be more Braveheart than 300," he said, "and I think that as it's evolved, we've got a pretty good mixture of both."
Hunnam revealed that he envisions someone like Christian Bale or Colin Farrell in the role, but is leaning towards Farrell. And he reiterates that the film will have nothing to do with fictional vampires, but will hint at the fact that this man is the origin of popular vampirism.
According to Hunnam, the entire first act introduces Vlad as a child and his transition to adulthood. Here's how he describes it:
First Act: "Basically what happened was, the Ottoman Empire was expanding at an exponentially fast rate with a father-son duo of sultans, who increased the size of their territory tenfold within 50 years. They conquered Vlad's father, also named Vlad Dracul—Vlad the Dragon. In Eastern Orthodox Catholicism, because of the iconography of George slaying the dragon, the dragon and the devil was one in the same. If you add an 'a,' it denotes 'son of,' so Dracula literally translates to 'son of the devil.' So right away, from the moment he was born, before he did anything heinous of his own volition, he had a pretty bad rap because of his name. So the Ottoman said to Vlad's father, 'You can stay in power, rule your country as you wish, allow Catholicism to flourish, but you have to allow my people who will come to live here now equal rights to their faith, Islam.' There were all of these terms, but overall it was a pretty generous deal until the final moment:
The Sultan wanted Vlad's two youngest children. He intended to raise the children himself, make them devout Muslims, then put them back on the throne at a later date with the proper bloodline and yet loyalty to the Ottoman. So Vlad and his brother Radu went. Vlad was about 12, and already had a pretty elevated sense of who he was, but Radu was only seven and much, much more malleable. So they ended up, in Vlad's mind, corrupting his brother and converting his brother to Islam. Radu was treated like a prince by the Ottomans, and Vlad was trapped like a slave, like a prisoner. About eight years after they got taken by the Ottoman, his father was murdered, and Vlad decided he was going to escape, avenge his father's murder, take his throne back and oppose the Ottoman. So he escaped from court, went to his brother, and his brother refused to come with him. It started a 17-year war between the brothers, Christian vs. Muslim." This chapter in European history hasn't been approached on film before, and we congratulate Hunnam on tackling it with a eye towards making something more akin to Braveheart than another 'Poofy the Vegan Vampire'. This will be an interesting project to watch develop.
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(6 Comments)
Vlad
Posted by Rob on May 7th, 11:02am
Lanie, with all dues respect-you chastise Hunnam, and yet you do not give a "for example"? How does he have a "tenous" hold on any of the subject matter between muslims and christians of Vlads time? It is not "conjecture" that Vlad hated, battled, and subdued many Ottoman attacks in Romania, Wallachia. The Ottomans were Muslim. They sacked Constantinople in their pursuit of expanding eastward. This is fact. Please explain to me (and I am not being a "troll"-I honestly like to understand someones take on one of my favorite subjects for the last 30 years)what you mean. Thanks..
Vlad
Posted by Lainie on March 18th, 3:45am
Hunnam has a very shallow understanding of Romanian history and culture, and at best a tenuous hold on the interplay between Eastern Christian and Islamic figures. He really ought to go back to acting and leave well enough alone.
Vlad
Posted by man on January 4th, 6:04pm
in romainian press it says that the movie and Brad Pitt will be filmed at a fortress in Romania in Curtea De Arges this spring here is the article http://www.cancan.ro/showbiz/showbiz-international/brad-pitt-vine-in-romania-sa-se-faca-dracula-82497.html all preparation are almost complete
Vlad
Posted by man on January 4th, 5:53pm
this is what happend at Targoviste in english http://militaryhistory.about.com/b/2007/06/17/wallachian-ottoman-wars-the-night-attack.htm and this is a video off the romainian version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8VhWU1hV0g&feature=related
Vlad
Posted by man on January 4th, 5:48pm
if they want the plot to be realistic like it really happend it must includ this http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atacul_de_noapte use google translate its in romainian and this is the bio of Vlad Tepes http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_%C5%A2epe%C5%9F the plot must necesarly include the night atack from tirgoviste if they want a movie based on a true story they can make even watch the romainian movie version of Vlad The Impaler to get a good idea how the movie should be
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ROMANIA WAS and IS a CHRISTIAN Country of ORTHODOX denomination. And never ever The Ottoman Empire tried to spread ISLAM into Romania, as the Princes of Romania made a truce with the Turks... and they were basicaly paying them a hefty price for this. And yes, Ottomans were to busy fighting Romanians in battles, than have time to spread the teaching of Islam!
ROMANIA was the only fortress left in the Ottomans way to conquer Christian Europe of Roman-Catholic denomination and they were never able to cross it!!! That's why they circled it, ending conquering Bulgaria, former Yugoslavia (Albania - muslim territory), Hungary, etc... but never conquering ROMANIA or imposing ISLAM as a religion!!!
Do trust me, I was born where Vlad reigned and where his uncle Mircea the Oldest never had surrended the country to the Turks, even if he was very old! What he did then, in 1415-1417, was to sign a Peace Treaty with the Ottoman Empire, with the outcomes of recognition of WALLACHIA as a FREE country in exchange for 3000 pieces of gold per year and one of his sons (that will be educated at the Ottoman Empire Court!) as guarantee.
I just wish Hollywood will do justice for once to our history!
Thanks for reading, guys!