Watch movies outside the country with secure Aeroshield Smart DNS
Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult lead the horror comedy Renfield from director Chris McKay.
The first trailer for the upcoming horror-comedy Renfield reveals our first official look at Nicolas Cage as Count Dracula. Released courtesy of Universal Pictures, Renfield finds Cage as a very different version of the iconic vampire overlord, with The Menu and Mad Max: Fury Road star Nicholas Hoult starring as the titular Renfield, Dracula’s put-upon servant. You can check out the first trailer for Renfield below.
Lesser-known literary character R. M. Renfield first appeared in Bram Stoker’s Gothic horror novel Dracula way, way back in 1897. The deranged and devoted servant and familiar of Count Dracula, Renfield will drop the character and his boss in modern-day New Orleans, where Renfield suddenly finds a new lease on life after falling in love with Rebecca Quincy, a feisty but perennially aggressive traffic cop.
Director Chris McKay has already hinted at how Renfield will skew from well-known Dracula lore, transforming the terrifying figure into more of a nightmare employer. “We’re doing something different. It’s going far away from what you would typically think of a Dracula movie: it’s modern, and it’s through the lens of Dracula as a sh*tty boss,” the filmmaker explained. “[It’s] not a straight-up comedy. There is definitely a tongue-in-cheek premise — what if your boss was literally the boss from hell? — but it’s also got action, it’s got a lot of heart, it’s not without menace.”
As for Dracula himself and Nicolas Cage’s highly anticipated portrayal, the actor has revealed his inspiration behind the Count in Renfield. And much of it has come from “channeling my father, August Coppola who had a MidAtlantic accent, and he always spoke, ‘You know, Nicolas, let me explain something to you, Nicolas.’ And I never understood his accent.”
Cage also plans to merge all the most beloved portrayals of Dracula into one saying, “I thought that I could do something with my own enthusiasm about Bram Stoker’s book, as well as Christopher Lee’s performance in the Hammer films, as well as Langella’s performance, as well as Oldman’s performance, as well as Lugosi’s performance. I wanted to embrace elements of each of them, but also Orlok and Max Schreck; I wanted to get some of the German expressionism and body language in it.”
Renfield is Due to be Released in April by Universal Pictures
Directed by The Tomorrow War and The Lego Batman Movie’s Chris McKay, written by Ryan Ridley, and based on an original pitch by The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, Renfield stars Nicholas Hoult as Renfield, Nicolas Cage as Count Dracula, the legendary vampire lord and Renfield’s boss, and Awkwafina as Rebecca Quincy, the traffic cop that steals Renfield’s heart.
The rest of the cast includes the likes of Ben Schwartz (Parks and Recreation, Sonic the Hedgehog), Adrian Martinez (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Focus), Shohreh Aghdashloo (House of Sand and Fog, The Expanse), Bess Rous (Ghostbusters), James Moses Black (Lansky), Caroline Williams (Ten Minutes to Midnight), and Brandon Scott Jones (Isn’t It Romantic).
Renfield is scheduled to be released on April 14, 2023, by Universal Pictures.
.