Jonathan Rhys Meyers to play Dracula in US TV series

London: Jonathan Rhys Meyers will be playing the role of the infamous Count Dracula in a US version of Bram Stoker’s classic tale.

The US TV network, NBC, has ordered ten episodes of the drama series. The NBC bosses said that Dracula, set in the Victorian era, will stay true to its classic story’s time period, but with a “look to the future.” According to the Hollywood Reporter, the series will be set in London in the 1890s, and will see Dracula lead a double life as an American businessman interested in bringing modern science to the Victorian society, the BBC reported. However, Dracula’s plan to exact revenge on those who had ruined his life centuries earlier is derailed when he falls in love. Based on a script by Cole Haddon, the series will be co-produced by Gareth Neame who was also responsible for ITV1’s hit period drama ‘Downton Abbey.’ It is not yet known when will Dracula be airing on US television, but NBC said that the production will begin later this year. Entertainment chairman at NBC, Bob Greenblatt, who had earlier cast the Meyers as King Henry VIII in the historical drama, ‘The Tudors,’ said that the new series will bring a Tudors sensibility to a piece of classic literature. “In the world of Twilight and True Blood and all the contemporised stories, we thought we’d go back to the original,” he said. ANI