The box-office disappointment of MOTHER OF TEARS, which prevented him from securing a theatrical release in Italy for his subsequent GIALLO, couldn’t keep 70-year-old Italian master of horror Dario Argento away from the cameras. The love for cinema and the horror genre is so deeply rooted within the filmmaker’s heart that for his latest movie, he dared to tackle the icon created by Bram Stoker with DRACULA 3D, updating the classic tale with the best dimensional technology.

“I have always been fascinated by this filmmaking system; therefore, when I was submitted the script, I immediately took the opportunity,” Argento explains to Fango during our visit to the Castle of Montalto Dora, near Turin, where most of the movie is being shot. “We previously tried RED and Silicon Image 2K cameras, but the Lexa and Sony F3 are amazing. This is the first time the new Lexa cameras are being used for a 3D picture. This technology is certainly more complex, difficult and time-consuming than standard 2D filmmaking, but I have an amazing Italian team helping me out with it, supervised by Jean Antoine Delille.”

Cinematographer Luciano Tovoli, returning from Argento’s SUSPIRIA and TENEBRAE, is the director of photography, while devoted Sergio Stivaletti is once again creating the makeup FX. “This time we are going to use more visual effects than in my previous movies,” Argento notes, “as the 3D allows me to experiment a lot with digital effects. Sergio will help with the opening and closing of the scenes, while John Attard will be responsible for the CGI.”

German actor Thomas Kretschmann, who previously starred in Argento’s THE STENDHAL SYNDROME, follows in the footsteps of Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee and Gary Oldman as the Prince of the Night, opposed by iconic actor Rutger Hauer as Professor Van Helsing: “I’ve always admired him,” the director says of Hauer, “and in my opinion he is more interesting now as an actor than when he was young. He as this very powerful face, with eyes expressing a sort of fury. The wrinkles on his visage give him the aspect of someone whose life has forged him, and I thought he would be a wonderful Van Helsing. In this story, he is a very practical vampire hunter; he’s not much into religion and mysticism, he’s not relying too much on the Bible or the cross.”

The movie’s plot is faithful to Stoker’s book, although Argento has introduced some of his own distinctive elements, like a fascination with insects. “I wanted to insert something original, so that the audience could recognize it as a Dario Argento movie. I then thought: Dracula is a creature that could mutate into a wolf, a bat and even into fog, so why couldn’t he transform also in a insect? So my Dracula will metamorphose into flies, a rat, a giant mantis and even a spider!”

Fango also had to ask Argento about the long-discussed remake of his classic SUSPIRIA. “I am not involved in it, I don’t know if they are doing it or not or where are they shooting it. Nobody ever told me anything about it. Unfortunately, I do not own the rights of the movie anymore; someone in United States bought them. Honestly, I don’t understand the sense of remaking my films; I do hope they stop this nonsense.”

DRACULA 3D is targeting a release next March; stay tuned for a very special report on the film, packed with exclusive interviews with Argento and the cast, in a future issue of Fango!

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