Could Johnny Depp bite on new Dracula book?

The worldwide impact [and profits] of the ‘Twilight’ franchise has resurrected Hollywood’s interest in vampires to a degree not seen since the ‘Hammer Films’ heyday in the mid-1960′s. The latest incarnation is a new book penned by the grand-nephew to Dracula’s creator, Bram Stoker, which is now being prepped to be a major new movie.

Running to almost 500 pages, “Dracula: The Un-Dead”, is the result of five years of toil by Canadian author, Dacre Stoker and the New York screenwriter, Ian Holt, who’s a big fan of vampires.

“When people think of Dracula they think of Bela Lugosi,” Holt told the AP.  “But Dracula was nothing like that. He was old and hunched, had hair on his palms, and bad breath.”

And Stoker agrees, “He was out of the grave and he smelt like death,” he added. “We’re going back to the original characters.”

A passionate admirer of all things undead since first being inspired by Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 movie, “Dracula,” it was Holt’s idea to create this new book. A worldwide search for Bram Stoker’s descendants found Dacre, who was Holt’s ideal partner for his new creation, “He had Bram’s genes and the name,” said Holt.

For five long years the pair worked together, guided by original, hand-written notes made by Dacre’s famous ancestor. The result is a sequel, set in 1912 – 25 years after the original novel, recounting a series of murders in London and Paris which launch a vampire hunt across Europe which once more unleashes the terror of “the prince of darkness.”

“We go back to the original but we don’t leave it at that,” Stoker said. And he’s right. Apart from reviving old characters, the pair added a British detective and a lesbian countess who also drinks blood.

Not surprisingly, a novel with this kind of bloodline [no pun intended] has got Hollywood jazzed. Talks are now under way to transform it into a major new movie and the word is that Johnny Depp could be Dracula, while Catherine Zeta-Jones is the two authors favorite for the blood-sucking countess.

They’re not yet saying who’d be making the film but if more news emerges we’ll let you know.