In a shocking move, Karyn Kusama‘s Dracula-inspired movie Mina Harker is no longer moving forward at Blumhouse and Miramax. Just weeks before production was scheduled to begin, the project has been scrapped due to reported creative differences between Miramax and the filmmaker.
Set in contemporary Los Angeles, Kusama’s modern take on history’s most iconic vampire would have focused on Mina Harker, the only female lead character in Bram Stoker‘s original Dracula novel. While plot details on Kusama’s film were kept close to the vest, in Stoker’s book Mina is cursed by Dracula, and only freed once he is exposed to sunlight and killed.
What’s most surprising about this move is that Mina Harker was given the green light after the huge success of The Invisible Man. That movie made over $140 million worldwide, and proved to Blumhouse and Miramax that fresh reimaginings of classic tales by talented directors were a viable idea. There’s every chance Mina Harker would have performed similarly.
There’s still a chance that the film gets saved by another producer now that Miramax has dropped out. Reading between the lines, it sounds like Kusama was trying to make the movie her own way, while the studio was likely pushing for something more commercial, mainstream, and closer to the Dracula audiences are familiar with.
Fingers crossed that another studio steps in and saves the project. Kusama is a talented director who has previously made films such as Jennifer’s Body and Destroyer, and there’s surely an audience for a contemporary, female-focused Dracula movie. We’ll see what happens over the next month.
#Peace.Love.MinaHarker
