Claes Bang

Award-winning Danish actor Claes Bang (The Girl in the Spider’s Web, The Bridge, Borgen, The Square) has been tasked with taking on the title role in Dracula, the long-awaited Steven Moffat/Mark Gatiss mini-series inspired by Bram Stoker’s classic novel.

The enthusiasm around this casting seems like deja-vu all over again. When a relatively unknown actor by the name of Benedict Cumberbatch read for the part of Sherlock Holmes, the brilliant team of co-creators/writers Moffat and Gatiss knew he was The One.

Now, Moffat, Gatiss and producers Hartswood Films are expressing similar effusiveness about Bang-as-vampire.

“It was one of those moments — who else could it be than Claes! He has it all. Brilliant, gorgeous, charismatic, lethal. Tall, dark and gruesome all at once. Hell has a new boss.”

Bang — who currently can be seen with Claire Foy in the movie adaptation of the book The Girl in the Spider’s Web — says there’s a lot to live up to with all the renown actors who’ve played Dracula over the years, but his excitement is mutual.

“I am thrilled to be taking on the role of Dracula, especially when the script is in the hands of the incredible talents of the team responsible for Sherlock. I’m so excited that I get to dig in to this iconic and super-interesting character,” he said. “Yes Dracula is evil, but there’s also so much more to him. He’s charismatic, intelligent, witty and sexy. I feel so privileged.”

Even though very little is known about the storyline for the forthcoming adaptation, the expectations are off the charts given the utter brilliance of the Moffat/Gatiss team’s previous collaboration on bringing the 21st century adaptation of Sherlock to viewers worldwide.

What is known comes from a recent BBC synopsis describing the project as, “Three feature length episodes that will re-introduce the world to Dracula, the vampire who made evil sexy. In Transylvania in 1897, the blood-drinking Count is drawing his plans against Victorian London.

“And be warned: the dead travel fast.”

When rumors of the series first hit the streets, there was talk of the new Dracula adaptation being set in the 21st century like Sherlock. That was probably more wishful thinking on my part — me wanting to see Count Dracula and Sherlock Holmes meet up at some point.

But with the BBC’s warning that “the dead travel fast,” who knows …

Dracula will premiere on BBC One in the UK and on Netflix outside of the UK.