Nicolas Cage has always wanted to play Dracula on the big screen.

The Con Air star portrays vampire Count Dracula in the upcoming comedy-horror movie Renfield, which also features Nicholas Hoult as the titular character.

While admitting interpreting the antagonist, first featured in Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel, was a “challenge”, in an interview for Total Film magazine, Nicolas noted that he was thrilled to take on the part.

“The concept of Dracula, in itself, is a challenge. It’s been done so many times already. It’s been done very well and it’s also been done not very well,” he said. “I certainly admire Christopher Lee and Frank Langella and Bela Lugosi and Gary (Oldman). But I wanted to see if I could bring something fresh to the character. And I also kind of always knew I had to do it at some point.”

Nicolas went on to share that he was particularly inspired by Christopher Lee’s performance in 1958’s Dracula when developing the character, as well as his late father August Coppola.

“I went back to Christopher Lee, in terms of his manner of speaking, but that was really only a starting point. I knew Christopher. I did a small scene with him in (the 2011 film) Season of the Witch, and I liked him very much. We had a lot of nice conversations, and he reminded me quite a bit of my father, August. So, from then on, my dad sort of became the main inspiration for me,” the 59-year-old added.

Renfield, also featuring Awkwafina and Ben Schwartz, is set to be released on 14 April.

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