![]() ![]() ![]() And now, there’s another series about these characters? Hell, filmmakers are even remaking the porno versions of the remakes of the films, and when that happens, you know you’ve hit that saturation point. Both characters top the lists of most remakes and sequels ever, and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight. On paper, the idea of revisiting these familiar characters seems a little dreary we’ve definitely had our fill of Dracula and Frankenstein films over the years. ![]() Either way, the series is probably one of the best things on television, with high production values and stellar acting you just don’t find in a genre series, especially a horror series. It is Monster Squad for adults…or A League of Extraordinary Gentlemen for the binge watching crowd. Combining the tales of Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolfman and Dorian Grey, Showtime and Sky hid out in their laboratory and cobbled together this shiny new creature from the pages of the greatest characters the world has ever known. Penny Dreadful is the Saturday Creature Feature television series you didn’t even know you were craving. Sweet says they gleefully combined royals, alchemists and serial killers with little regard for anything but Grand Guignol glory.An Appreciation of the Showtime Original Series Penny Dreadful But the TV series is also true to the spirit of real penny dreadfuls. ![]() Logan acknowledges these as important influences. Stories that bring together real historical characters, like Jack the Ripper, with fictional ones, like Count Dracula, might seem to be a riff on such projects as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen or the novel The Seven-Per-Cent Solution. "Stories about trapdoors that you fall through and end in the sewers." "Stories about highwaymen, murder, smugglers," he explains with evident relish. Historian Matthew Sweet, who consulted for the television show, said the real penny dreadfuls specialized in grotesque stories of alarming violence. Those were the lurid little magazines sold on streets for about a penny. Not only was it created by a Bond screenwriter, it stars a former Bond Girl - Eva Green - and a former James Bond - Timothy Dalton.)īut the kinetic energy around Victorian horror literature was fueled in part by penny dreadfuls. (It should be noted that Penny Dreadful includes a fair amount of kinetic James Bond energy. "There was something going on there that was extremely kinetic," he mused. Logan became fascinated by an explosion of literature in the last decade of the 19th century that included Dracula, War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Hound of the Baskervilles. Wordsworth led to John Keats led to Percy Shelley led to Mary Shelley and Frankenstein - "And then I picked up Dracula," he said. The playwright and screenwriter of Gladiator and the James Bond movie Skyfall said he'd turned to reading romantic poetry obsessively after a heartbreak. It was a Wordsworthian spring evening in his apartment right off Central Park, and Logan was relaxing after a long day of rehearsing his first Broadway musical, The Last Ship, starring Sting. "The real impetus for the whole series was Wordsworth," confessed John Logan. Victor Frankenstein, Dorian Gray, Count Dracula - plus a core team of original characters including a Wild West sharpshooter, an astringent lady spiritualist and an intrepid explorer, in the Sir Richard Burton or David Livingstone mode.īut the show's creator was originally inspired by romantic poetry. Imagine an all-star Gothic revue that brings together Dr. If you fall in that category, the new drama Penny Dreadful - premiering Sunday on Showtime - may hit all your sweet spots. There's a specific subset of NPR listeners who are also dedicated horror fans. Reeve Carney and Eva Green star as Dorian Gray and Vanessa Ives. Frankenstein, Dorian Gray and Count Dracula all lurking in London's darkest corners, discussing romantic poetry. Showtime's new psychological thriller re-imagines classic Victorian boogeymen like Dr. ![]()
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