Earlier this year, it was announced that director Luc Besson would be making Dracula movie called Dracula: A Love Tale, a “big-budget reimagining” of the Dracula concept that will feature “some epic and potentially spectacular set pieces.” that project is now several months into production, aiming to wrap up this month – and Deadline has just shared a behind the scenes image that shows Besson and Caleb Landry Jones, who just worked with Besson on his most recent film, Dogman – with Jones in costume as Dracula! An edited version of the image can be seen above, and the full image can be found at the bottom of this article.

The idea that Jones would make a great Dracula occurred to Besson while they were on the set of Dogman. Wanting to work with the actor again as quickly as possible, the filmmaker then started assembling his take on Dracula. He told Deadline he’s fascinated with Jones because “He’s crazily talented. It’s something I haven’t seen since Gary Oldman. On a human level, he’s a gem, kind, lovely… there’s no entourage, no agents and assistants in tow.” This is the most inspired he has been by an actor since Jean Reno, who he made six movies with.

Dracula: A Love Tale is, as the title gives away, a love story, following Dracula as he connects with a woman in Belle Epoque Paris, who resembles his beloved wife Elisabeta, who died in mid-15th century Transylvania. Per legend, it was Elisabeta’s suicide that led Romanian ruler Prince Vlad III (the real-life inspiration for Dracula) to forsake God and embrace life as a vampire. The action moves between time and the settings of Dracula’s castle in Romania’s Transylvanian Mountains and Belle Epoque Paris, which substitutes Stoker’s original UK settings of Whitby and London. The Paris-set scenes in the second part of the film unfold in the lead up to July 14, 1989, as the city gears up to celebrate the centenary of the French Revolution.

Jones is joined in the cast by Zoë Bleu (Mother, May I Sleep With Danger?) as Elisabeta and her 1989 look-alike Mina, Matilda De Angelis (Citadel: Diana) as Mina’s best friend, and Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained) as a vampire-hunting priest who is on Dracula’s tail.

Deadline visited the set of Dracula: A Love Tale while filming was taking place on a 4,000 meter castle set that was built in the Darkmatters studio near Paris. The set includes a dungeon set complete with torture instruments, including a suspended metal cage; a decaying chapel; the vampire’s bedroom, featuring a large four poster bed carved with dragon motifs and strewn with roses; a majestic, double-staircase entrance hall, which is reached by a snow-covered driveway and courtyard, as well as a magnificent banquet hall. To learn more about the production, click over to Deadline.

Are you interested in Dracula: A Love Tale? Take a look at the first image of Caleb Landry Jones as Dracula, then let us know by leaving a comment below.

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