While this may be old news to some, it’s bound to be new and/or odd news to at least a few out there in telly-land. American broadcast network, NBC, announced at this summer’s Television Critics Association gathering that it was green-lighting an adaptation of the Bram Stoker classic, Dracula, for a 10-part series starring The Tudors’ Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

Originally described by Deadline as Dangerous Liaisons meets The Tudors, Dracula is set to begin production in the not-too-distant future for 2013 broadcast on NBC in the States and the UK’s Sky Living Channel. Dracula comes from the producers behind the critically acclaimed, Emmy Award-winning ITV/PBS hit, Downton Abbey, Carnival Films & Television (NBC Universal) and the U.K.’s British Sky Broadcasting.

According to NBC press material, the series will introduce Dracula as he arrives in London, posing as an American entrepreneur who maintains that he wants to bring modern science to Victorian society. In reality, (insert surprised look here) he’s seeking revenge on the people who cursed his life centuries earlier. There’s only one circumstance that can potentially thwart his plan: Dracula falls hopelessly in love with a woman who appears to be a reincarnation of his dead wife. Thankfully, no modern day Twilight or True Blood-type treatment for this one but it does sound a bit like one you need to see before passing judgment. Period pieces don’t necessarily have a good track record on American commercial networks. Hopefully, they’ll take one look at Downton Abbey and leave this one to the professionals at Carnival.

From Downton Abbey to Dracula…sounds like a logical progression, don’t you think?