Nicolas Cage is all bloody fangs and long, dark cape as he plays a rage-filled Count Dracula in the final trailer for Renfield from director Chris McKay.
Universal’s modern-day horror comedy, set nowhere near Castle Dracula in Transylvania, focuses more on Cage in full-on Dracula mode, whereas an earlier trailer emphasized the dynamic between the vampire king and his henchman, the titular Renfield played by Nicholas Hoult.
“You deserve only suffering,” Dracula lashes out at Hoult’s Renfield in the trailer. This is followed by another moment with Cage’s present-day monster character gliding in a red satin smoking jacket, with blood smeared around his mouth.
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At another point in the trailer, Renfield and Awkwafina, who plays a traffic cop, set about to take on Dracula in a blood-and-guts confrontation. During a previous Los Angeles Times interview, Cage said his take on Dracula drew from the performances of Bela Lugosi’s turn as the vampire villian in 1931’s Dracula, Frank Langella’s performance in the 1979 film of the same name, and Gary Oldman’s portrayal in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (with the 1992 feature directed by Cage’s uncle, Francis Ford Coppola).
Ryan Ridley, known for Fox’s Ghosted and Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty, penned the script for Renfield based on an original story pitch from The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman.
McKay and Kirkman are producing along with David Alpert, Bryan Furst and Sean Furst. McKay’s producing partner, Samantha Nisenboim, is executive producing.
Renfield is set to hit theaters April 14.
