No matter how many times Bram Stoker's Dracula is adapted for the screen, new performances will always exist in the shadow of Bela Lugosi's iconic Count Dracula. Lugosi is a fascinating Hollywood figure, and the new book Béla Lugosi: The Man Behind the Cape aims to provide a comprehensive account of Lugosi's life and career.
With Clover Press kicking off the crowdfunding campaign for Béla Lugosi: The Man Behind the Cape, IGN can exclusively reveal an excerpt from the book. Head to the slideshow gallery below to see several pages from the book, including an excerpt of a chapter and various behind-the-scenes photos:
Béla Lugosi: The Man Behind the Cape is written by Robert Cremer. The book features a foreword by Béla Lugosi, Jr. and an afterword by historian Dr. Gary Rhodes. It provides a detailed account of Lugosi's life and career, ranging from his early days as a soldier and union activist in Hungary to the heyday of his Dracula stardom to his later career working with director Ed Wood on films like Glen or Glenda and Plan 9 From Outer Space. The book includes numerous interviews with figures like Wood, Lugosi's former wife Lillian Lugosi Donlevy and other friends and family members.
The text in Béla Lugosi: The Man Behind the Cape is accompanied by over 700 photographs curated from the Lugosi Family Archives, many of which have never been published before.
Béla Lugosi: The Man Behind the Cape is live on Kickstarter now. Assuming the book is successfully funded, it should see release in 2024.
This isn't the only Dracula-themed book debuting on Kickstarter this month. Comics legends Matt Wagner and Kelley Jones are teaming up for Dracula: The Impaler, the first in a series of graphic novels that reveal the untold origin of the iconic villain.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
![Dracula [1931]](https://moviesmedia.ign.com/movies/image/object/087/087793/dracula-1931_poster.jpg?width=114&auto=webp)
