Dracula - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Dracula or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Dracula

[ronnie]

The song that is heard during the end credits is "Love Song for a Vampire" by Annie Lennox.

[scarlett]

Steve Buscemi was the first choice to play Renfield, but turned it down.

[dustin]

Several elements of this movie were taken from previous Dracula adaptations. Renfield being Harker's predecessor (the characters are completely unrelated in the novel) has been used in numerous previous Dracula movies, starting with Nosferatu (1922). The scene of Dracula rising from his coffin for the first time is also taken from Nosferatu (1922). Dracula's line of dialogue, "I never drink...wine" has also been used in numerous previous Dracula movies, originating with Dracula (1931). The idea of Dracula's motivation for coming to England being to find his reincarnated lost love was first used in Dracula (1974). The lunatics in the asylum rioting to signal the coming of Dracula was used in Dracula (1979). References to non-Dracula movies include Dracula turning Mina's tears into diamonds, a reference to the Jean Cocteau movie Beauty and the Beast (1946), Lucy's glass coffin, taken from the various versions of the "Snow White" story, and the window in Lucy's bedroom, taken from the Frank Capra movie The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1932).

[miriam]

According to cinematographer Michael Ballhaus's autobiography (published in March 2014), Francis Ford Coppola's main influence and inspiration for the cinematography and visual design of this movie was F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922). Ballhaus considers Coppola's visually inventive movie one of his favorite achievements as a cinematographer, and the last great "must-see" movie by Coppola.

[duane]

When the wind blows out the candles in Professor Abraham Van Helsing's study, he quotes Othello, saying "It is the cause, it is the cause my soul" (from Act 5, scene 2 of the play). Sir Anthony Hopkins played the eponymous character in Othello (1981), in which he delivered the same line.

[ruby]

Although this movie was never at risk of getting an NC-17 rating instead of an R (for which producer and director Francis Ford Coppola and Columbia Pictures were aiming anyway) from the MPAA, Coppola and the studio agreed to cut some of the more ultra-gory images from the final movie.

[manuel]

Red jelly was used for the blood.

[camila]

This movie was released to coincide with the 95th anniversary of the release of the novel, and with the 80th anniversary of the death of Bram Stoker.

[ava]

Producer and director Francis Ford Coppola says on the DVD audio commentary that during the shaving scene, the walls of the set gradually move inward to create a subliminal growing sense of claustrophobia.

[norma]

A scene that was storyboarded, but not filmed, involved Dr. Jack Seward (Richard E. Grant) and Lord Arthur Holmwood (Cary Elwes) coming across the dead bodies of Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves), Quincy P. Morris (Billy Campbell), and Professor Abraham Van Helsing (Sir Anthony Hopkins) impaled on posts before the climactic confrontation, and then realizing that this is simply a hallucination conjured by Count Dracula (Gary Oldman), using his powers of psychological persuasion.

[charlie]

Costume designer Eiko Ishioka (who won an Oscar for this movie) had never seen a Dracula movie prior to being hired for this one. She was initially hired as the art director, but when producer and director Francis Ford Coppola saw some of her costume sketches, he immediately asked her to work as the costume designer.

[jeffrey]

The film takes place in 1462 and from May to November 1897.

[lonnie]

Gary Oldman himself thinks that Dracula was never a "bucket list" role for him in the first place. He said that the main reason why his younger self said yes to the role was an opportunity to work with Coppola, who he considered one of the great American directors. It was Oldman's first big American movie, made on a big set with lots of costumes and for a young actor then that was a tremendous experience.

[carla]

In the scene where the heroes burst in on Dracula and Mina, Dracula turns into a bat-like creature, and frightens the heroes out of their wits. Gary Oldman had problems with this scene, feeling constricted in the suit, and not very scary. Francis Ford Coppola told him to whisper something scary into each cast member's ear, which Oldman did with relish. No one knows what he said to them, but they all look absolutely terrified in the scene.

[willard]

Gary Oldman hired a singing coach to help him lower his voice by an octave to help him give Dracula a more sinister quality.

[beth]

In an attempt to elicit more emotion, producer and director Francis Ford Coppola shouted "whore" and "slut" at Winona Ryder while filming the scene when Professor Abraham Van Helsing (Sir Anthony Hopkins) catches Mina (Ryder) with Dracula (Gary Oldman).

[scarlett]

At the first cast meeting called by producer and director Francis Ford Coppola, he got all of the principal actors and actresses to read the entire Bram Stoker novel out loud to get a feel for the story. According to Sir Anthony Hopkins, it took two whole days to complete.

[fred]

Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves's attempts to sound English are mocked in "Sigourney Weaver" by American songwriter John Grant: "I feel just like Winona Ryder / In that movie about vampires / And she couldn't get that accent right / And neither could that other guy."

[ava]

In August 2018, Winona Ryder expressed concern that she might be legally married to Keanu Reeves. Apparently, Francis Ford Coppola wasn't happy with their wedding scenes in the movie, and to achieve greater authenticity, re-shot the sequence with a real priest.