You wouldn't think that a movie that was cut 37 times because of negative response by multiple preview audiences would go on to become a blockbuster hit, but that's exactly what happened with "Bram Stoker's Dracula", a 1992 Columbia release, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. With a $40 million plus budget and 69 days production schedule (Oct '91-Jan.'92) the originally titled "Dracula the Untold Story" went on to win three Oscars for Costume Design, Make-up, and Sound Effects Editing. In its opening weekend on November 13, l992, it easily commanded the Number One spot and went on to make over $80 million domestically.

Because of a limited budget and production schedule, the entire movie was shot on seven sound stages with sixty sets on the backlot of Columbia studios in Culver City, Los Angeles. The London street scene where Dracula met Mina for the first time was the only scene filmed elsewhere, on Universal's backlot. The scene at the end of the movie on a snow covered road with the principals chasing Dracula's chariot was really a soundstage with cast and crew traveling in circles! Coppola fired the original special effects artists, who wanted to work post-production using blue screen and computer graphics, and hired his son, Roman, who shared his dad's idea to recreate the effects early filmmakers used at the time Bram Stoker's book was published in 1897. Those filmmakers were magicians and relied on optical illusions and trickery. With his second unit, Roman was in charge of the clean-up shots and inserts, along with the visual effects, all of which were done while production was in progress to save time and money. One of my favorite illusions was the scene where Keanu was shaving. We think we see Keanu's reflection in the mirror, but we're actually seeing Keanu standing in a hole in the wall. An Extra was shaving and both actors mimicked each other's actions. We have Roman to thank for the scene with Keanu and the three vampire brides. Because his father did not like doing scenes of an erotic nature, Roman's second unit filmed the scene using hidden trap doors, air tubes, and reverse action shots. Some scenes were shot with a hand-held camera with the film optically treated to enhance the grainy image.
The studio wanted a "youthful" Dracula movie, so the leads were actors in their 20's and 30's (with the exception of Anthony Hopkins).

Coppola assembled his cast for one week of rehearsals at his family ranch in Napa Valley. They read the book aloud, played theater games, and did improvisations. Coppola did not know Keanu before filming and chose him over Johnny Depp and William Baldwin because Winona Ryder wanted him to play Jonathan Harker. The director later said this about Keanu: "I like Keanu. He's an enchanted person, a really nice person."

Keanu's performance was royally panned by everyone, including himself ("I was bad in that"). It didn't help that stories circulated that Keanu had to redub the dialogue three times because of negative responses from test screen audiences. Even the studio seemed defensive: Keanu kept a low profile during the publicity tours, which included the director and the other principal actors. But in his defense, I would like to make two observations. First, Jonathan Harker, the dutiful Victorian gentleman, was about as interesting as watching paint dry. And next to the high-energy, whacko charisma of Dracula, Renfield, and VanHelsing, no wonder he "paled" in comparison (sorry). Besides being "excitement-challenged" along the lines of Mr Rogers in his neighborhood, an American television icon, his character disappeared in the middle of the movie. Early preview audiences thought he had died! I figured he had bled to death. Second, I never understood why Gary Oldman was cast as Dracula in the first place. It's odd to me that Oldman, not a great looking man and very adept at playing modern-day villains, got to play the seductive lover for whom women willingly submitted and sacrificed their life's blood. And Keanu, mysterious, charming and exotic, a beautiful man by any standard, got to play the dull solicitor's clerk, cockhold by his bride. Who made that decision?

"Bram Stoker's Dracula" failed me, not because of Keanu's performance, but because of my disappointment in Oldman as Dracula. Frank Langella's sexual magnitism and Bela Lagosi's creepiness were more compelling Draculas. Jonathan Harker at the beginning of the movie remarked "I've seen strange things already" and I did too- shadows out of whack, liquid dripping up, shapeshifting. Even with all of those nifty effects, and emphasis on bloody images, the movie was still a bloated, undisciplined, visual feast, which never found the "heart of darkness" which makes Dracula the quintessential horror master. Now go watch this movie and report back. The balcony is open.