When a sound version of Dracula finally made it to celluloid, the first such movie to feature a real (as opposed to pretend) vampire, a choice faced the filmmakers. How to portray the vampire? Taking their cue from the Balderston-Dean play, they decided the title character would ooze sinister charm—an archetype that owes far more to Polidori’s much-earlier work The Vampire than to Bram Stoker’s novel. Actors considered for the lead included Lon Chaney (ironically enough, the great silent star died of throat cancer first) Conrad Veidt and Frederick March, but in the end the role went to tall, thin and suave Bela Lugosi.
Flash forward seven decades or so. Another major studio prepares to adapt another vampire novel to the screen. Herein the choice is more subtle. The male lead in Stephanie Meyers’ Twilight is written as handsome, gallant (if moody) and highly ethical.
A more pressing question is that of casting. Who shall play Edward? Fan favorites included Orlando Bloom, Tom Wellin and Hayden Christensen. But in the end the role went to Robert Pattinson—up until then best known for portraying the doomed nice guy Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Initially (and this is sometimes hard to credit now) fans reacted badly to the news. They soon changed their minds for the most part, especially once the teasers and trailers began showing. One might even call this evidence that sometimes professional casting directors and filmmakers actually do know more about how to do their jobs than the average moviegoer (although there remains a die-hard group of fans who still reject Pattinson in the role).
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