Dracula..ahem, Gary Oldman won his first Oscar last night.
Gary Oldman, who played Count Dracula in the 1992 adaption of the book by Bram Stoker, won an Oscar last night at the 90th Oscar show.
In his acceptance speech that you can watch here, the 59 year old actor thanked his soon to be 99 year old Mother for supporting him throughout his acting career.
Through his many roles, Oldman has certainly come a long way in being rewarded this Oscar, but the win was for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in 2017s drama, 'The Darkest Hour' was the one that got him, finally, up on that stage. "The movies, such is their power, captivated a young man from south London and gave him a dream" But lets not forget why we're here, or how we got here for that matter. Gary Oldman is arguably one of the best who portrayed the infamous Count Dracula in the 1992 adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel, 'Dracula'.
From those before who portrayed the count in their own light, such are the likes of Max Shreck in the 1922 classic, 'Nosferatu'and Klaus Kinski in the 1979 version, 'Nosferatu the Vampyr'. "Nosferatu was an inspiration because it's just wonderful" stated Oldman in an interview shortly after the films release. "It's scary. It's still spooky"
These dudes did an insanely credible job for the times, but Gary Oldman truly captured the lustful and sensual side of count Dracula towards his soulmate, Mina (played by Winona Ryder) which the movie adaptions before just wouldn't have been able to get away with for their times.
Oldman even agrees in one of his earlier interviews . "Bram Stoker's Dracula is sort of moist...wet...it's, y'know, it's horny stuff". watch the interview here. Fast forward a few more years to 2014 where a further movie adaption by the name of, 'Dracula Untold' which was loosely based on the original novel and more centred around the lore of Vlad the Implaler.
Vlad the Impaler is said to be the inspiration of one of the most well known fictional monsters in the world, the vampire. With his taste for blood being the main inspiration for Stoker and his now classic novel, there's a reason why Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia earned his more commonly known nickname, 'Vlad: The Impaler'. There stands a long list of reasons why Vlad earned his reputation for cruelty, but these are some of the most well-known and brutal reasons:
He impaled alot of turkish saxons (including women, children and babies), and anyone who displeased him for that matter.
He drank his victim's fresh blood.
He ate the raw flesh of his victims.
He burnt down entire villages and lots of churches.
Born in 1431, Vlad's father was ordered into the knightly order, 'The order of the Dragon. This earned Vlad's father the surname: Dracul. The word Dracul came from an ancient Romanian word, 'drac' meaning 'dragon'. His son, Vlad III (shown on the right) later earned his title as 'son of dracul' or, in ancient Romanian, Drăculea...or Dracula as it is known now.
You can read the full article by livescience and powerstudy here.
A year later, in 2015, a director by the name of Robert Eggers created the visionary masterpiece film, 'The Witch: A New-England Folktale'.
Eggers later revealed that he was planning on directing...that's right...another movie adaption of Nosferatu. Not that we're complaining or anything, because according to Oldman in his interview, which you can watch in full here,"In a way like Dracula himself, (the story) has travelled time...it's lasted".
And if you've seen Egger's, 'The Witch' then you'll understand the need to be excited - if Eggers' remake of Nosferatu is as visually stunning and frightening as 'The Witch', then the horror world is in for a bloody treat.
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