To paraphrase the words of a certain actor who brought the classic character to undead life soon, Dracula is back! Not that he went anywhere. The vampire lord has already had one outing to the theaters this year in Renfield (2023), which follows the story of Dracula's harried titular henchman played by Nicholas Hoult (The Great). That particular adaptation shows Dracula (Nicolas Cage, ridiculously flamboyant as usual) as a boss from hell, but that's not the only time we'll be seeing the notorious count on screens in 2023. Bram Stoker's immortal creation will appear again this summer in The Last Voyage of the Demeter, from Amblin Entertainment. This time, the whole movie is a re-imagining of Chapter 7 of the novel (titled "Captains Log"), in which Dracula travels to London aboard the Russian merchant ship Demeter. The short chapter, consisting entirely of diary entries written by the ship's captain, tells the tale of a sinister presence haunting the ship and killing its crew. Is this enough action for an entire movie? Or will the script need to add characters, subplots--or even a different ending? Here's everything we know about The Last Voyage of The Demeter so far.Editor's Note: This article was updated on August 8.Related:David Dastmalchian Talks Working With André Øvredal on 'The Last Voyage of the Demeter'

When and Where Is The Last Voyage of the Demeter Releasing?

After many script rewrites and production changes, the film's release date was moved from January 27, 2023, to August 11, 2023. As of now, The Last Voyage of the Demeter will only be available to watch in theaters, as no streaming date has been announced yet. The film has been given an R-rating and has a runtime of 119 minutes.

Watch the Trailers for The Last Voyage of the Demeter

The first trailer for The Last Voyage of the Demeter was released on Universal Picture's YouTube channel on April 13, 2023. Set to a moody remix of The Smashing Pumpkins' "Bullet with Butterfly Wings," the trailer unleashes plenty of vampire carnage.

This was followed by a teaser trailer released on July 18, 2023. The fifteen-second video doesn't show much, but it does plenty to raise the scare level, with mysterious deaths and a terrifying look at the movie's Dracula. See it here:

On July 31, a Look Inside featurette for The Last Voyage of the Demeter was released via Rotten Tomatoes, promising an Alien-esque story. See it here:

Who's Making The Last Voyage of the Demeter?

Bragi F. Schut (Escape Room) wrote a story and screenplay based on Chapter 7 of Dracula all the way back in 2002, but the film languished in development limbo for nearly two decades. Along the way, numerous interested directors came and went from the project, including Robert Schwentke (RED), Marcus Nispel (Friday The 13th), David Slade (30 Days of Night), and Neil Marshall (Hellboy). Ditto for onscreen talent; at one point, Viggo Mortensen (Lord of the Rings) was cast to play the captain but dropped out after the production hit numerous snags. Ben Kingsley (Ghandi) and Noomi Rapace (Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) were also attached at one point. Finally, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark director André Øvredal took the helm in 2019, working off a screenplay written by Bragi and Zak Olkewicz.

The film is produced by Brad Fischer, Mike Medavoy, and Arnold Messer, and executive produced by Matthew Hirsch. The production companies involved include Amblin Entertainment, Amblin Partners, Latina Pictures, New Republic Pictures, Phoenix Pictures, Universal Pictures, and Viola Film, with distribution by Universal Pictures. Roman Osin and Tom Stern serve as the cinematographers and Thomas Newman composed the film's score.

Related:Comparing Universal's Dueling 1931 'Dracula' Films – Which Is More Unsettling?

Where and When Was The Last Voyage of the Demeter Filmed?

Principal photography began in June 2021 in Berlin. The film was also shot in Malta and production on the movie wrapped in the fall of the same year with Amblin announcing the end of filming with a Twitter post dated September 30, 2021.

Who’s In the Cast of The Last Voyage of the Demeter?

The Last Voyage of the Demeter stars Corey Hawkins (The Tragedy of Macbeth) as Clemens, a doctor who comes aboard the ship. Hawkins is also set to star in the upcoming remake of The Color Purple later this year. Aisling Franciosi, who appeared in Game of Thrones and the upcoming film The Nightingale, plays Anna, a young stowaway who helps battle the merciless count. Liam Cunningham (Clash of the Titans) will play the ship's captain, who might go down even if his boat doesn't. David Dastmalchian (The Suicide Squad) plays the ship's first mate, Wojchek.

And of course, the man of the midnight hour, Count Dracula is played by Javier Botet. When he was five years old, Botet was diagnosed with a rare genetic condition called Marfan syndrome, which affects the body’s connective tissues, giving him unusually flexible and long limbs. In a rather inspirational way, Botet has used his rare physical traits to make a career playing surreal and often nightmare-inducing characters like the Slender Man in the movie of the same name, the Crooked Man in Conjuring 2, and the terrifying title character from the 2013 horror film Mama. Considering his unique talents, fans can probably expect Botet's portrayal of Dracula to be less "jaded and debonair aristocrat" and more "horrifying wall-crawling monster"--with a serious case of the munchies. Other members of the ensemble cast include Jon Jon Briones, Stefan Kapicic, Nikolai Nikolaeff, Woody Norman, Martin Furulund, Nicolo Pasetti, and Chris Walley.

So What's The Last Voyage of The Demeter About?

In Chapter 7 of Stoker's novel, the captain's diary entries recount the ship's journey from Carpathia, where they pick up some strange private cargo: 24 strange, heavy wooden crates that are to be delivered to London. At first, the journey seems normal, but things very quickly take a sinister turn. Everyone is anxious but can't figure out why they continue to face one extremely unfortunate event after another. First, a strange man is spotted on board, then crew members start disappearing. A terrible storm hits the ship and the first mate goes crazy, throwing himself overboard. The captain finally realizes that some sort of evil supernatural creature is stalking his crew, picking them off one by one. In the spine-tingling final entry, he's holding a rosary in his hands and lashing himself to the mast, determined to defy the monster and the storms to the very end. He leaves his log in a bottle in the hopes that someone who finds it may be able to decipher the terrible truth behind the events that have befallen him and his ship. By the time the nearly ruined schooner pulls into its next port, there's no one on board except one clearly insane man.

Expanding a little on the events of the chapter, the film follows various characters, including a doctor, the captain, and first mate of the ship, and a stowaway who clearly picked the wrong boat to sneak onto. No one thinks to check the wooden crates in cargo where Dracula rests during the day, and by the time the sun sets, it's too late: Dracula is hungry. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Øvredal described the film as "Alien-on-a-ship in 1897." That rather nicely sums up the story, don't you think?