In 1900, just three years after Bram Stoker's novel Dracula was first published, author Vladimar Ásmundsson wrote an Icelandic version of the novel that was titled Makt Myrkranna, or Powers of Darkness. Over 100 years later, Powers of Darkness has, for the first time ever, received an English translation. Translated by Hans de Roos and featuring a preface by Bram Stoker's great-grand nephew Dacre Stoker, the English edition of Powers of Darkness was just published earlier this month and can be purchased HERE.
A ten episode television adaptation of Powers of Darkness is now in the works, coming from producers Nick Wechsler and Joni Sighvatsson, with Icelandic screenwriter Otto Geir Borg working on turning the novel into an English-language series.
The series will be titled Dracula Now, which gives away the fact that the story is being updated to take place in present day. The political aspect of Ásmundsson's novel will be emphasized, with Sighvatsson describing the series as an allegory of what's happening today in the U.S., the U.K., and France.
Dracula will be a seductive, manipulative megalomaniac from Transylvania on a ruthless quest to conquer Europe.
As described by Sighvatsson, their Dracula is "a dictator forging a reign of blood to control people in today’s world."
Wechsler and Sighvatsson plan to make Dracula Now on a budget of $3 million per episode.