Nicolas Cage's Dracula will channel David Bowie and his late father

News
By published

"I'm trying to become the Thin White Duke"

Nicolas Cage in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
(Image credit: Lionsgate)

Nicolas Cage has revealed the figures he's trying to channel in his portrayal of Dracula in upcoming horror comedy Renfield – David Bowie and his late father.

"I'm trying to become the Thin White Duke for Dracula," he told GQ, referring to the persona adopted by Bowie in the mid-'70s, which was in turn partly inspired by the character he played in The Man Who Fell to Earth.

"August Coppola's coming back," Cage added, speaking of his late father, who was the brother of director Francis Ford Coppola. "And he's coming back as Dracula."

In Bram Stoker's iconic gothic novel, R.M. Renfield is an inmate at an asylum – thought to be experiencing delusions, he was actually a servant of Dracula. In this movie, however, Nicholas Hoult plays Renfield, Count Dracula's henchman who decides to leave that life behind after falling in love with a traffic officer (Awkwafina). Ben Schwartz, Adrian Martinez, and Shohreh Aghdashloo will also star. 

The Lego Movie director Chris McKay is helming a modern-day retelling of the tale based on an original story by Robert Kirkman, the comic book writer best known for co-creating The Walking Dead. Ryan Ridley, who's previously written for TV shows like Community and Rick and Morty, penned the movie's script – so it looks like we can expect plenty of laughs.

Emily Garbutt
Entertainment Writer

I’m an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering everything film and TV-related across the Total Film and SFX sections. I help bring you all the latest news and also the occasional feature too. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism.