Publishers Weekly is reporting that Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt sold US rights to Dracula: the Un-dead to Dutton publisher Brian Tart. Stoker is the great-grandnephew of Bram Stoker, who wrote Dracula in 1897. Holt is a Dracula documentarian and historian. The agents who made the deal are Danny Baror of Baror International and Ken Atchity of Atchity Entertainment International. Baror and Atchity also sold UK and Canadian rights to the work for a combined total of “well over mid-seven figures”.
The new book is “the first Stoker family-authorized Dracula project since the original 1931 movie starring Bela Lugosi. It opens in London in 1912, where someone is stalking the band of heroes who defeated the vampire a quarter of a century ago.”
It will focus “on several characters and plot threads previously eliminated during the heavy editing that accompanied Dracula‘s original publication. Through Stoker family connections, the writers had access to Bram Stoker’s handwritten notes for Dracula, which was originally to have been called The Un-dead.”
Dutton, HarperUK, and Penguin Canada all plan to publish in October 2009 (Penguin Canada also bought rights to two sequels).
Atchity, who is also the film agent for the project, expects it to start filming in June. Atchity will be co-producing with Jan de Bont of Blue Tulip. The script has already been completed by Holt and Alexander Galant.