# Dracula 2000

Dracula 2000 (also known as Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 2000 and internationally as Dracula 2001) is a 2000 American vampire film co-written and directed by Patrick Lussier and produced by Joel Soisson. Starring Gerard Butler in the title role along with Christopher Plummer, Jonny Lee Miller, Justine Waddell, Omar Epps, Colleen Fitzpatrick, Jeri Ryan and Jennifer Esposito, the plot follows Dracula, who arrives in New Orleans, Louisiana in the 21st century and seeks out Mary Heller, the daughter of Abraham Van Helsing.
Dracula 2000, under its promotional title Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 2000, builds upon Bram Stoker's original 1897 novel Dracula, with Count Dracula resurrected in contemporary America. The film was a critical and commercial failure, though two direct-to-video sequels, both written and directed by Lussier, were produced.

## Plot

In 2000 London, Matthew Van Helsing, a descendant of 19th-century physician Abraham Van Helsing, owns an antique shop built over the site of Carfax Abbey. One night, Van Helsing's secretary, Solina, her boyfriend Marcus, and their companions Trick, Nightshade, Dax, and Eddie break into the shop's underground vault, believing it must contain valuables. Instead, they discover a sealed silver coffin. While attempting to open the coffin, Eddie and Dax are impaled by spikes, spraying the coffin with blood and alerting Van Helsing to their presence. Assuming the coffin must contain his valuables, the group escapes with it aboard a plane to New Orleans, and Van Helsing arranges a flight to pursue them, unwittingly accompanied by his apprentice, Simon Sheppard.
Aboard their plane, Nightshade unlocks the coffin, revealing the withered body of Dracula. Having been awakened by the blood on his coffin, Dracula attacks and vampirizes Solina and her group. Rejuvenated, Dracula has a vision of a young woman, Mary Heller, who simultaneously sees him. After the plane crashes in a Louisiana swamp, the seemingly deceased passengers are taken to a makeshift morgue, while Dracula vampirizes Valerie Sharpe, a presenter reporting on the crash. He then travels to New Orleans to find Mary. Estranged from her family, Mary has recently been experiencing vivid dreams about Dracula, unaware of who he is.
Van Helsing and Simon arrive in New Orleans and destroy most of Dracula's newborn vampires. Afterward, Van Helsing confesses to Simon that he is the Abraham Van Helsing, who defeated Dracula in 1897, and has extended his own life by regularly injecting Dracula's blood. In the century since, Van Helsing has failed to find a method of permanently killing Dracula. All that is known, is that Dracula is enraged by God and Christian iconography, and has a vulnerability to silver. Van Helsing also reveals that Mary is his daughter. She was conceived after Van Helsing began his injections and thus shares a connection to Dracula. Van Helsing's wife left with Mary after learning of what he had done.
Dracula is led to Mary's home by her friend Lucy, whom he seduces and vampirizes. There, he later confronts and kills Van Helsing. On her return, Mary finds her father's bloodied corpse and is ambushed by Dracula and his brides: Solina, Valerie, and Lucy. Simon arrives just in time to save her from Dracula's beast form. The pair briefly escape into a church cemetery, but Dracula soon catches and abducts Mary. Dracula explains that he has spent centuries searching for someone like him, but born rather than vampirized like his thralls.
On a rooftop, Dracula transforms Mary and reveals that he is Judas Iscariot, the Apostle who betrayed Jesus to the Romans for a bribe of thirty pieces of silver. After Jesus was crucified, Judas hanged himself in atonement at sunset, but was revived and turned into the first vampire. Dracula reveals his intent to spite Jesus by spreading his vampiric immortality to humanity and corrupting them with forbidden pleasures. Mary suggests that Dracula cannot die because he has not sought God's forgiveness, but Dracula refuses to ever submit to Jesus or God again. After Simon kills Valerie, he is subdued by Solina and Lucy and brought to Dracula, who offers his blood to Mary. She feigns the bite before she and Simon kill the remaining brides, and stab Dracula to avenge her father.
An enraged Dracula attacks Mary, who wraps some retaining cable from a large crucifix around his neck and drags him over the roofedge. As dawn breaks, and Dracula looks up at the image of Jesus on the crucifix, the sunlight immolates him. He releases Mary from her vampirism before perishing. Sometime later, Mary has taken her father's role guarding Dracula's remains, to ensure that he remains dead.

## Cast

* Jonny Lee Miller as Simon Sheppard
* Justine Waddell as Mary Heller/Mary Van Helsing
* Gerard Butler as Dracula/Judas Iscariot
* Jennifer Esposito as Solina
* Christopher Plummer as Abraham Van Helsing
* Colleen Ann Fitzpatrick as Lucy
* Danny Masterson as Nightshade
* Jeri Ryan as Valerie Sharpe
* Lochlyn Munro as Eddie
* Sean Patrick Thomas as Trick
* Omar Epps as Marcus
* Tony Munch as Charlie
* Shane West as J.T.
* Nathan Fillion as Father David
* David J. Francis as Jesus
* Tom Kane as Anchor Man

## Production

While finalizing post-production on Scream 3, Bob Weinstein approached editor Patrick Lussier on a modernized take on Dracula entitled Dracula 2000. When Lussier asked Weinstein what the film was about, Weinstein responded "I don't know." Joel Soisson, having written under Lussier for The Prophecy 3: The Ascent, was brought on board to flesh out the film. The filmmakers quickly drafted a screenplay by January 2000, which envisioned a smaller scale story than Weinstein had hoped for. Soisson's initial pitch, which included a vampire hunting priest, would ultimately be recycled for the sequel, Dracula II: Ascension. Inspired by the prior Hammer Horror entries, particularly Dracula A.D. 1972, Lussier attempted to employ similar methods for his film. Lussier and Soisson also sought to differentiate their Dracula from other adaptations. The director took note of the character's scorn for Christian iconography, ultimately linking him to Judas Iscariot.
Wes Craven served as an executive producer on the project. Craven's name was used heavily in marketing, as done on previous films such as Wishmaster and Don't Look Down. Ehren Kruger performed a script polish, while Scott Derrickson and his writing partner Paul Harris Boardman were enlisted for a rewrite just two weeks before production. According to Derrickson, Weinstein thought the script was "terrible" but was moving forward with production regardless; when Derrickson asked why he was making the movie, Weinstein replied "Because it's called Dracula 2000".
During pre-production in Toronto, Lussier had already blocked several scenes using assistants. Christopher Plummer, Jennifer Esposito, Colleen Fitzpatrick, Omar Epps, Justine Waddell, Jonny Lee Miller, and Jeri Ryan arrived on set, but no actor would be cast in the title role. Gerard Butler would be cast as Dracula only two days before filming commenced.
Filming began on June 26, 2000, and took place in New Orleans and Toronto and wrapped on September 6. A rough cut of the film was assembled in only six days. Additional photography occurred on October 23 and spanned eight days. Nathan Fillion was added during the reshoots, filming his brief scenes on Halloween night. In November, the Writers Guild of America ruled that Soisson would receive sole screenplay credit and share story credit with Lussier. The final cut of the film was expected to be delivered on December 12, 2000, a mere ten days before its theatrical release. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Craven compared Dracula 2000's rushed production to his time working on Scream 2, saying "What's the benefit of making movies so fast? There's no benefit whatsoever. It's terribly difficult, and completely unnecessary."

## Reception
### Box office

On its opening weekend, Dracula 2000 released alongside Cast Away, The Family Man, The Gift, Miss Congeniality, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and Thirteen Days. The studio hoped the film would counterprogram against the "season's romantic comedies and dramas".
The film opened at #7 in its first week at the box office with $8,636,567. In its second week, the film had a 56.5% drop-off, but hung onto the #8 spot. The film grossed $33,022,767 domestically and $14,030,858 overseas for a worldwide total of $47,053,625, failing to make back its $54 million budget. On its initial video release, it grossed an additional $32 million in the US and Canada and continues to make money worldwide. Dracula 2000 was the sixth-highest-grossing film for Miramax/Dimension Films in 2000, exceeding the box office takes of such expensive Dimension Films releases like Reindeer Games and Impostor, as well as Miramax's December opener for that year, All the Pretty Horses.

### Critical reception

The film received generally negative reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reports a rating of 19% based on 70 reviews, with an average score of 3.59/10. The site's consensus states: "This retelling tries to offer a different spin on the origin of Dracula. Unfortunately, there's nothing here audiences haven't seen before". On Metacritic, the film has a 26 out of 100 rating, based on 14 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".
Berge Garabedian of JoBlo offered a positive review, calling it "A fun vampire movie", "a novel adaptation of an old time legend", and "[good] for pretty much anyone looking for some enjoyable bloody fun". BeyondHollywood.com wrote: "Dracula 2000 is not the worst vampire movie I've seen, but it's definitely not the best either. There are some very good moments, most of them featuring the frail Van Helsing as he attempts to battle the fast and deadly vampires. Also, I appreciated the background given to Dracula's aversion to silver, crosses, and God, as well as Dracula's 'true' origins. Not bad work, but it could have been much better".
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "C−" score, while James Berardinelli of ReelViews panned the film, writing: "Of all the indignities to have been visited upon Dracula during the past century (including being the "inspiration" for a cereal and a Sesame Street character, and being lampooned by Mel Brooks), none is more unsettling than what has happened to the world's most famous vampire in Dracula 2000". Jane Crowther of the BBC gave the film 1/5 stars, saying it was "Destined to enter the so-bad-it's-good hall of fame" and "a prime example of that old remake adage; if you can't do it better or different – don't do it at all."

## Soundtrack

The film's rock and metal soundtrack includes Powerman 5000's song "Ultra Mega", Linkin Park's song "One Step Closer", Pantera's song "Avoid the Light", System of a Down's cover of Berlin's "The Metro", Slayer's song "Bloodline" and Disturbed's song "A Welcome Burden". The original score composed by Marco Beltrami was released in 2017 by Varèse Sarabande as part of the label's Little Box Of Horrors limited edition 12-disc set. The score was released separately by the label in July 2020.

## Sequels

Dracula 2000 was followed by two direct-to-video sequels, Ascension in 2003 and Legacy in 2005. Series director Lussier and Joel Soisson, who co-wrote all three films, created a plot for a fourth film and discussed releasing it theatrically, but the film was not produced.