'Dracula Untold' Promises To Revive Our Post 'Twilight' Hopes Of Vampires As Misunderstood Yet Bloodthirsty

It's fair to say anyone past the age of 14 is fed up with vampires or at least of the overly sympathetic versions we are bombarded with in Twilight. We all miss the good old days when vampires were naughty, vicious and decadent creatures as opposed to floppy haired 'vegetarian' romantics. So if you're longing for the days of Lestat, searching for the sharp wit of Spike or simply want to see Gary Oldman's shadow mischievously revealing his inner thoughts, then the upcoming film Dracula Untold may be for you.

Lee Evans stars in Dracula Untold as Vlad Tepes.

Dracula Untold follows the character Bram Stoker's Dracula is based on, Vlad III, and attempts to create a link between the medieval Romanian ruler and the fictional monster we've come to know and love. In the film we are set to see Vlad strike up a bargain with an unusual fanged creature (yes, it's most definitely a vampire) that lives high on a deserted mountain in order to protect his family and people from the machinations of Sultan Mehmed II. Complete with billowing red cape, the trailer suggests Dracula Untold may be an historical epic crossed with a graphic novel à la 300.

Watch The Movie Trailer For Dracula Untold:

For those of you who have read Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian or happened to have stumbled across Vlad on Wikipedia, an historic tome or folk lore, you're probably already aware Vlad was not the friendliest of 13th Century rulers. In fact he was something of a nightmare, in the traditional none supernatural sense of the word. He was renowned throughout Europe and the Ottoman Empire for his cruelty, especially his practise of impaling his victims on stakes. Vlad enjoyed impaling so much that he allegedly dined in amongst the corpses and also acquired the name Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Tepes in Romanian.

Dracula Untold is a Hollywood creation and the writers (Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless) have ensured Vlad is tragically misunderstood and sympathetic. So there's not likely to be much impaling going on.

Dominic Cooper as Sultan Mehmed II in Dracula Untold.

Dracula Untold stars Luke Evans (The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug) as Vlad, Charles Dance (Game of Thrones) as the aforementioned mysterious creature, Dominic Cooper (Need For Speed) as Mehmed II, and Sarah Gadon (Belle) as Mirena, Vlad's wife. Charlie Cox (Stardust) has another unnamed part whilst Samantha Barks (Les Misérables) appears as Baba Yaga, a supernatural staple in Slavic folklore.