Dracula Untold is a 2014 American action horror film directed by Gary Shore in his feature film debut and written by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless. The plot creates an origin story for the title character, rather than using the storyline of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel. In this adaptation, Dracula is the historical figure Vlad III "the Impaler" Dracula and transforms into his monstrous alter ego to protect his family and kingdom from Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II. Luke Evans portrays the title character, with Sarah Gadon, Dominic Cooper, Art Parkinson, and Charles Dance cast in supporting roles. Principal photography began in Northern Ireland on August 5, 2013.
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Short filmTranscript
00:01Hey, I'm Luke Evans, and welcome to a unique Dracula Untold experience.
00:06I had a great time bringing the Prince of Darkness to life, and now I can't wait to show you how it was done.
00:19After I played Owen Shaw in Fast and the Furious 6,
00:25there was a discussion between myself and Universal about playing somebody else in a different film.
00:31So we discussed many different options, and the one option that sort of sparked my interest was Dracula.
00:37It was a great role for me, and I had a lot of fun playing that character.
00:44I left it where I found it.
00:48What do you think, Vlad? Bring it to me.
00:51So the scene that we're looking at right now appears very early on in the film.
00:55It's the first time you actually see young Vlad, the Prince of Wallachia.
01:01He's heard a report that they've found Turkish armor on his body.
01:07And to Vlad, that means one thing. The Turks only enter a land if they want to invade it.
01:13And so to find this helmet in the river on his land means one thing to him.
01:19It's danger. It's a threat.
01:22When he picks up the helmet, as you see, there are huge scars on the side of the helmet.
01:28This isn't just a helmet. This is a helmet that was on a ship.
01:32There are huge scars on the side of the helmet.
01:34This isn't just a helmet. This is a helmet that was on a Turk's head, and it was on his land,
01:39and those marks were not made by anything he would know.
01:50They're inside.
01:51How do you know?
01:53Bats don't come out during the day. Something's disturbed them.
01:58This scene is when Vlad and his two henchmen, for the first time, enter the cave of the master vampire.
02:05There's something in this cave, and I think Vlad is the only person that's brave enough
02:09to want to explore and investigate what's up there.
02:12They made three caves, and this cave was all about the tunnel walking into the cave.
02:18So there was a huge staircase of stone covered in skeletons and skulls and armor.
02:25What he realizes as he walks down this corridor into this cave is that it's not just armor from the Turks.
02:30There's armor from many other regions in Europe.
02:36They enter the cave, and he loses two of his men within the space of five minutes.
02:40They get swallowed up by the cave and by the creature inside the cave,
02:44which is played by the wonderful, phenomenal actor, Mr. Charles Dance.
02:50He plays the master vampire, who we see a very small glimpse of in this scene, but nothing too much.
02:56And Vlad uses his sword to swipe him and cuts him very slightly.
03:03Makes the creature retreat back into the cave.
03:08I've missed you.
03:09And I you.
03:11Sarah Gagnon is a beautiful woman, inside and out.
03:14She's an incredible actress.
03:16She has a humongous responsibility in this film because she's the only woman.
03:20She's representing the females, and she's representing them in a brilliant way.
03:24She's a strong woman.
03:26In the film, Marina plays a supportive wife and a loving mother, but a woman that stands by her man.
03:36This is the first scene where you see another side of Vlad.
03:41You see the family man.
03:43You meet his wife, Marina, and you meet his son, Ingress.
03:47It's a very important scene for the film because it sort of sets up the importance of the family to Vlad.
03:54And it's a lot of the reasons why he does what he does later on in the film,
03:58is because of this love he has for his wife and his son.
04:02That's what we wanted to provide here, was a sense of family and love and security.
04:07But she sees in Vlad's eyes in this scene that there is something wrong.
04:12She knows him inside out, and that's what's wonderful about her.
04:15She's not just a wife and a mother, but she's a very strong, soul companion of Vlad.
04:21She knows how he works and how he ticks, and she knows there's something wrong.
04:29So this scene is the banqueting hall inside Vlad's castle.
04:35It's quite an amazing set.
04:37I remember when I first arrived in Northern Ireland,
04:40seven weeks before we started shooting, they were building this set.
04:44And we didn't use this set until about two months into the film.
04:47So, as you can imagine, that's a long time.
04:50And the detail in the set was incredible.
04:52And behind the thrones, you'll see these amazing images of me and Marina and my son.
04:59The attention to detail and authenticity as well.
05:02There's a lot of reference to what you would see in castles of that period at that time.
05:08Yeah, I felt very royal that day, I have to say.
05:12Welcome. We were not expecting you so soon.
05:16So this gets broken up by the Turkish soldiers entering.
05:22Hamza Bey, who is played by the wonderful Ferdinand Kingsley,
05:26arrives with his men straight into the middle of this event,
05:29and immediately people are very uncomfortable.
05:31They know that this doesn't happen.
05:33They collect their money and they usually leave.
05:35There's no dialogue.
05:37But they stay, and they have a reason to stay.
05:39The Sultan requires 1,000 boys to join his Janissary Corps.
05:46This happened to Vlad when he was a young boy.
05:49Him and his brother were sent by his father as a sort of peace treaty to be reared by the enemy.
05:54Vlad doesn't want this for his own son. He knows what that means.
05:58It's a huge threat, and it's the beginning of Vlad's journey to becoming a vampire,
06:03and the reasons why he starts to find those powers.
06:10This scene is... It was an incredible day, actually.
06:14We transformed a farmer's field into the immediate encampment around Mehmet's master tent.
06:21It was quite a day, and that horse I'm riding
06:24is probably the most beautiful creature I've ever seen in my life.
06:28Anyway, we ride into the encampment,
06:31and Mehmet's soldiers all remember me,
06:35because I was brought up by the Turks.
06:38Vlad got himself quite a reputation.
06:41He was called Kaziglu Bey, which means Lord Impaler.
06:44He was a ruthless warrior, and they were scared of him.
06:49And the fact that he left the Turks to go back to his own country was a big deal.
06:53And now he's back in their encampment, so they have this fear of him,
06:57but also a respect of him, but also a sense of betrayal by him as well.
07:02So there's a lot of energy and electricity in this scene when I'm riding in on my horse.
07:07I'm going to the tent. I'm going to Mehmet's tent,
07:10which is where I meet Mehmet II, the Sultan of the Turkish Empire,
07:15played by the wonderful, the impeccable Dominic Cooper.
07:20My oldest of friends.
07:22Your Excellency.
07:23Who is somebody who I've played against before as an enemy many years ago.
07:28So it's quite funny that we have revisited our enemy positions,
07:32but with much higher stakes this time.
07:34Dominic plays this sinister character who, you know, he's not very nice.
07:40He's really not very nice.
07:41Funny, because Dominic is very charming and very lovely and a good friend of mine.
07:46And so it was quite fun.
07:48It's always fun to play against a friend
07:49and do something that you wouldn't actually do necessarily in real life.
07:53So we had a lot of fun.
07:55We meet in his tent and it's all about me trying to make him compromise
08:00about his request to take the children of my kingdom and also my own child.
08:04So he's playing on the fact that they were both brought up as children together.
08:11But it doesn't work.
08:12What's happened is Mehmet II has become the Sultan
08:15and has gained with that a grotesque amount of power
08:18and is a demanding human being.
08:20I count my soldiers by armies.
08:23My enemies by nations.
08:25And you?
08:27Not at all.
08:28And knows by doing what he's doing to Vlad and requesting these children
08:32is going to cause the annihilation of his people.
08:35Mehmet will be sending others soon enough.
08:38War will come. You can't protect us.
08:41I'll find a way.
08:43This scene is when Vlad goes back alone to the mountain.
08:48He's just killed a bunch of Turkish soldiers, which means one thing.
08:52It means war.
08:53And he's now left his country very vulnerable,
08:56his people vulnerable, and his family vulnerable.
08:59And so he looks to Broken Tooth because he knows something's up there.
09:03Something's in that cave.
09:05And so he goes back up alone.
09:07And this is where he meets the master vampire.
09:11What kind of man is it that crawls into his own grave in search of hope?
09:17A desperate one.
09:18It's one of the most enjoyable scenes I got to shoot in the movie.
09:22Playing against such a brilliant actor as Charles, it was a joy.
09:26It was four days of a lot of fun.
09:29Even though it's not a fun scene, it was very fun to shoot.
09:32Vlad wants the power, and the master vampire wants the freedom.
09:36And between the two of them, they somehow come to an agreement.
09:41But it's a big moment for Vlad,
09:43and he's very brave to even enter that cave for a second time.
09:46Most people never get the second chance.
09:56Having to imagine yourself turning into a colony of bats is quite a difficult feat.
10:02You have to really allow your imagination to go mad, to go crazy.
10:05And the first time he does it, he's running very fast.
10:09And we had one double running far away from the camera.
10:15And he turns into bats, and then in front of the camera was me.
10:18And then I stop and reform as a human.
10:21I had to trust that that was going to work.
10:24I had to trust Gary and the amazing digital department
10:28who created all the special effects to create that.
10:32And yeah, it works very, very well.
10:34It's a slow realization of this man who now has these powers.
10:38And transforming into bats is something he uses very successfully throughout the movie.
10:43Fire!
10:47My dad, Dave the Rave.
10:49I'm Luke Evans' dad.
10:53He's been an extra in three of my movies.
10:57He upstages everybody.
10:59He can't remember his lines.
11:01But he loves dressing up.
11:03Proud of him. Yeah, I am. Thank you very much.
11:06He's in a scene when Vlad returns to the castle that's being bombed.
11:11And yeah, he's in there somewhere,
11:13waving a finger at his son, trying to tell him off.
11:17But yeah, he's been in quite a few different movies now.
11:21Just enjoy watching it all going on.
11:23It's a joy.
11:25I mean, days on set are long and sometimes can be very boring
11:29and lots of hanging about.
11:31To look out and be acting and see a familiar face was a joy, yeah.
11:35I hope he doesn't get bored too soon
11:38and will do a few more movies before I'm done.
11:48So this scene is when Mehmet's army is advancing on the castle,
11:53which has been pummeled by humongous cannons
11:57that the Turkish Empire used to shoot.
11:59They were humongous.
12:01This fight was called Vlad versus 1,000,
12:05and it's basically that.
12:07It's me against, not 1,000, but 160 people.
12:12It took a long time to learn this choreography.
12:15It had to change a few times.
12:17We had to adapt it because of the camera angles.
12:19We had to give a couple of flares.
12:21We then wired somebody so that I could lift him off the floor
12:24and he would spin up into the sky.
12:26I felt very good that day.
12:28A lot of dialogue goes into scenes like this.
12:30They can be very dangerous.
12:32There's a lot of blades flying about,
12:34and so everybody needs to know exactly where they're going to be,
12:37what height, what speed the blades are coming at you.
12:40It's a huge amount of preparation.
12:42I've done a lot of this stuff in the past, but this one was really detailed.
12:45The credit goes to the wonderful stunt choreographer, Buster Reeves,
12:49who has choreographed some of the most iconic fights
12:53in cinema history in the last 10, 15 years, 20 years.
12:57He choreographed this, and so it was him
13:00and the immensely talented group of stuntmen that he works with.
13:04We spent many, many hours, many days, many weekends
13:08in a huge hangar in Northern Ireland, in Belfast,
13:11learning these stunt sequences.
13:13We had steady cams, as you see in this shot.
13:15We have a camera tracking next to it.
13:17They moved around, they were above, they were below,
13:19they were in the middle of it, and they chased me at one point.
13:22So there was a lot of different angles
13:24to catch all the different hits and the stabbings
13:27and all the stuff that went on in this scene.
13:30It was a very fun day. It was a hard day. It was exhausting.
13:33But the finished product I'm very proud of,
13:36and it's quite nice to see the backstory
13:38and actually see behind the scenes in this
13:40because you sort of see how it's all shot
13:43and how detailed some of the fight sequences are.
13:45It's all about accuracy, because where the camera is
13:47means where you punch and all that stuff, so yeah, it's great.
13:55When Vlad realizes he has the power of the bats,
13:59he knows that they are following him
14:01and that they're around him the whole time.
14:03But once he realizes that they are congregating
14:06in the tower in this monastery, I think he realizes
14:09that he could use this to his own advantage,
14:11and so he goes up into the tower alone,
14:13and he looks into the eaves of this tower,
14:15and he sees hundreds and hundreds of bats
14:18just landing and almost waiting for his command.
14:22Below in the tower, lower down in the tower,
14:25Mirena and Ingeris, my wife and son,
14:29can see these millions of bats
14:33circling the tower and rising above,
14:36up to the top of it where I am.
14:39And he gathers these bats, and as he moves his hand,
14:43they move with him, and as he clenches his hand,
14:46they turn into a fist.
14:48Even though I knew the bats weren't there
14:50on the day, I had such a clear vision
14:52of how it was going to look that it was a very fun day,
14:56and I'm glad it's turned out as effective as it has in the film.
14:59Bats have always been associated with vampires.
15:02It seems very right and just
15:04that we honor that historical connection
15:08between that wonderful creature
15:11and the most famous vampire of all.
15:15You can keep running if you like.
15:18I'm not him!
15:21Mirena.
15:23It's a very sad moment in the film
15:27because everything Vlad has done to that point
15:29is for his family, is for his wife and his son and his people.
15:33And there, at this moment,
15:36he is tricked into fighting the army
15:40while his wife and son were beaten up
15:43into fighting the army
15:45while his wife and son were beaten on the top of this tower.
15:49And Mirena is pushed off the side of the tower.
15:53Just as Vlad arrives on the top of the tower,
15:56she loses her grip and falls.
15:58He jumps after her, desperate to catch her.
16:01With all the power he has, he fails.
16:04He just misses her.
16:06Even with all those powers, sometimes he just, you know,
16:09he failed, and it's a very sad moment
16:12that he loses his wife.
16:13It's the moment in the film where Vlad stops fighting
16:17for what he loves because she's dead.
16:20And then he just goes for full attack to this Turkish army.
16:25I mean, this is a man with so much pain and heartache
16:29and anger and revenge in his blood.
16:33It's the turning point in his life.
16:37I understand you have a weakness for silver.
16:42So this fight sequence is the final fight sequence in the movie,
16:47and it is an amazing set.
16:50We created the inner sanctum of the main sultan's tent,
16:55and Mehmed has discovered that I now have a weakness to silver.
17:00And so what he does is he covers the whole of this inner circle
17:05in his tent in all the coins of my land,
17:09these silver coins that have my face on them.
17:12You could liken it to how Krypton is to Superman.
17:16Silver is to Vlad.
17:18He can't touch it. It burns him.
17:20And he now has to fight surrounded by these coins
17:23that are silver and that have his face on them.
17:26And Vlad slowly loses more and more power.
17:28He's, you know, he's being drained by this silver
17:31that he's surrounded by, and he's losing his power
17:35but fighting at the same time.
17:39I'm Nina.
17:44Vlad.
17:46This scene is the end of the movie.
17:50It's 500 years since the beginning of the story.
17:53You meet him now. It's the 21st century.
17:55He's wandering, and he wanders through this market
17:58where he's probably wandered many, many times before.
18:00He hears a voice. Something stops him in his tracks,
18:03and he turns around, and he sees what is, to our minds,
18:07Morena, but Morena's dead.
18:09This is a reincarnation of her,
18:13this woman that's triggered all these memories
18:15from hundreds of years ago.
18:17Something happens there. History repeating itself.
18:20And that's where we leave the movie.
18:22That's where we leave the story, open to possibilities.
18:34Thank you so much for joining me on this journey.
18:37I hope you learned a few things you didn't know before.
18:40Playing the origin of Dracula has been a dream come true for me,
18:43and I am so glad I got to share this with you.
18:46I hope you enjoyed it.
18:53You forget who I am.
18:56My name is Dracula.
19:04You forget who I am.
19:07My name is Dracula.
19:34To take on a role that comes from history,
19:38it's incredibly exciting.
20:04Morning.
20:06Morning. Can I take your bag?
20:14It's very early. It's 5 o'clock.
20:18Yeah, this is a normal time I get up in the morning.
20:21And today we start the vlog at 5 o'clock.
20:24I'm going to show you what I do in the morning.
20:27I'm going to show you what I do in the evening.
20:30It's a normal time I get up in the morning,
20:32and today we start the Vlad versus 1,000 fight.
20:35It's a lot of work today.
20:38But I always try and just have a relax.
20:42I've got a pillow on,
20:44so I've become a master of sleeping in the back of a car.
20:53Coming in.
20:55I get one of these every day.
20:58It's a call sheet.
21:00It basically shows you all the scenes and descriptions
21:04of all the scenes we're doing today.
21:06I change costume, I warm up, I rehearse,
21:10and then I kill 1,000 Turks.
21:14Normal day.
21:22I'm Harriet, and I'm Luke's dresser.
21:25We're just getting dressed now, ready for the scene,
21:28so it's all kind of continuity to the stuff we've done already.
21:32Winter's arrived, so no more.
21:37Lots of layers so we don't get cold.
21:43Layer upon layer upon layer.
21:46Foot warmers inside the boots.
21:48You ready?
21:50I can't get into this costume alone, that's the thing.
21:54It takes two people.
22:01Back in the black.
22:11OK, so that's us off the set.
22:14That's everything.
22:16We're ready to start setting the scene.
22:24Hi, Luke, how are you?
22:26Good.
22:31You're walking over here, you impale him.
22:34Am I just taking the impaling?
22:37Cos they've just said her vision is here,
22:40I can't do any of the action if that's where her eye line is.
22:44This scene comes after these guys have basically
22:47just tried to burn me in that place down there.
22:50As you can see now, it's completely decimated.
22:56Do you think you are alive because you can fight?
23:02You are alive because of me!
23:07Because of what I did to save you all!
23:13This is not who you are.
23:20It's a bit of a moment of tragic revelation.
23:23My son in the film, Ingress, at this point,
23:26is behind the water wheel in the background
23:29and actually he gets front row seats to this all-forward event
23:33without me realising.
23:35Return to your stations.
23:38Believe me, there is still time.
23:41There is still time.
23:43There is still time.
23:45There is still time.
23:48Believe me, there is still more to fear.
23:55We're heading over to the second unit
23:58and we're going to pick up the fight
24:00which is called the Vlad versus a thousand fight.
24:03There's just been a lot of training, a lot of rehearsal.
24:06This is by far the biggest fight sequence I've ever learned.
24:09It's huge, it's massive,
24:12but it looks fantastic and that's good.
24:15It's constant rehearsals.
24:17It's quite nice when you finally get to shoot
24:20because you know you never have to do it again.
24:37Today we're doing fight sequences
24:39which means my hair and my face and my hands
24:43are constantly being wrecked
24:45and it ends up flying away and looking ridiculous.
24:48So Lizzie's there to make sure I don't look ridiculous.
24:55So this is the final sequence of a very, very long fight,
24:58the longest fight sequence I've ever had to learn
25:01for any movie I've ever done.
25:04The make-up's going in stages through the fight
25:07so he comes into the fight and he's quite clean
25:10and the fight's in eight stages
25:12so what I'm trying to do is break him down every other stage
25:15because we've already shot the end of the scene
25:18when he gets back to the monastery
25:20and he's covered in blood and dirt and everything else
25:24so it's sort of like a process.
25:28I probably spend more time with this woman in the day
25:31than anybody else.
25:33Without Lizzie, I can't be Dracula.
25:37Cut.
25:40We're just doing the blue-screen elements of the Vlad versus a thousand.
25:44We've been prepping this fight now for about three, four months.
25:48We've been rehearsing extensively with the stunt team
25:51and also with Luke when we can get him.
25:53The training for this has been insane and I have to keep it up
25:56because the fighting that I do in this film demands strength.
26:02It's hard, it's seriously hard
26:04and it's the stamina that you need.
26:07I trained every day. I was on 5,000 calories a day.
26:10I was bulking up.
26:12When everybody goes home at night, I go to the gym.
26:16Oh, let them file in. Oh, poor Luke.
26:19But that's what I do and that's what you have to do.
26:22If you're going to take a top off on set
26:24and you have to show the guns or whatever they want,
26:27it's something that you have to think about.
26:30This is the first initial bit when he charges the Turkish army
26:34and hits the first front line, which will be a group of our stunt guys
26:38and then we are heading into the first section of eight
26:41that takes us all the way through the Vlad versus a thousand.
26:46We just shot 72 frames per second, which means it's slow motion,
26:50so when you play it at the normal speed, you see all the moves,
26:54so every move has to be concise and direct and on point.
26:58In slow motion, if it's cheating, what you're doing has to be really good
27:02so you can't see when the blade doesn't slice the person.
27:08I've still got my arms and legs.
27:15All done. I've got the official wrap.
27:18I thought they might have taken me over to second unit or main unit,
27:22but just one unit today.
27:24It's been a really wonderful experience.
27:27It's a shame it's coming to an end, but I guess it's been just fun
27:33telling the story and telling it with people that really cared about it
27:37and wanted to be here. Everybody's had a great time.
27:42We're all sort of orphans here.
27:44Most of us don't come from Northern Ireland in the cast,
27:47so we've all been here and invested all our time and energy into the film.
27:52Yeah, good memories, really good memories.
27:55Half of my year has been taken up killing Turks and biting people's necks.
28:01Coming to the end of the day,
28:03that was the final fight that I had to do in the film,
28:06but also it's coming to the end of the film.
28:08We have five days left, four days shooting left.
28:12That's it, really. That's the end of the story.
28:15That's the end of the journey, a nine-month journey of work,
28:19preparation, rehearsal, training, diet, study, research,
28:25sleepless nights, early mornings, late finishes.
28:30It's been a very fun experience.
28:33I hope you've enjoyed following me for my day,
28:36from the second we woke up to the second we said goodbye.
28:42It's not as easy as it looks.
28:44That's one thing my friends and family have noticed
28:47when they come and follow me on set and see how long my days are.
28:50They go, oh, OK, it's not all glamour, is it?
28:53It's not all red carpets and nice suits.
28:56But, no, it's good to work hard.
28:59OK, take care. See you soon.
29:48There's lots of different stories about Vlad the Impaler.
29:51I swear I will not give in.
29:54Some of them are quite positive and say that he was a fantastic leader
29:58and respected by his enemies.
30:01Mehmed will punish all of Transylvania for what you have done.
30:04We will not be defeated!
30:18Vlad was a prince of a country called Wallachia,
30:22which is now Romania.
30:25Throughout history, as time has gone by,
30:28he's been remembered as Vlad the Impaler,
30:31the guy that impaled thousands of people on stakes in a field,
30:35you know, men, women and children and animals and everything.
30:38But that torture was actually taught to him by the Turks.
30:44Back in the days in Europe, around the 16th century,
30:47kids from Slavic countries were taken by the Turks
30:50and raised to become, like, killing machines.
30:53The Sultan requires 1,000 boys to join his Janissary Corps.
30:57No! You can't take that!
30:59It shocked and outraged a lot of people at the time.
31:02They take boys out of these countries,
31:04indoctrinate them into their faith and into their army.
31:07Like mercenary soldiers, they've been taken at a very young age,
31:11between the age of maybe 8 and 12, mostly from the Balkans.
31:14They would be Christian, absorbed into the Sultan's household.
31:18Treated as a family member because they're taken so young.
31:22They are ruthless, loyal.
31:24They'll kill for him, they'll die for him.
31:27Mehmed's father took Vlad in or stole him away from his own family
31:32to bring him up as a child warrior.
31:35But we grow up as brothers together.
31:37Mehmed is the Sultan's natural son.
31:40Vlad was more of the son that the Sultan wanted,
31:43even though Vlad was adopted.
31:45Probably when they were growing up,
31:47Mehmed could see that the Sultan favoured Vlad.
31:50There was certainly an animosity there from very early on, you know.
31:54Vlad, you know, referred to as the Transylvanian pup,
31:58living in the house of the Sultan,
32:00and he earned the Turkish people's respect,
32:02he earned the Sultan's respect.
32:04Vlad was the guy that, if Mehmed I could have handed over
32:09his throne and his power, he would have given it to Vlad
32:12because Vlad seemed to show all the signs of being a great leader.
32:16Young Mehmed II, on the other hand, was not that human being.
32:19He was not that person.
32:21I think there's a certain level of jealousy and envy
32:24towards this relationship between my father and this boy.
32:29He probably resented Vlad very much so
32:32for being the outsider that came in,
32:34gained the love of his father,
32:36and actually was doing a much better job
32:38at inheriting the throne than he was.
32:41There's a bond between these two men,
32:43but there's a giant grudge from Mehmed to Vlad
32:46that, you know, my father liked you better than me.
32:50And then when Vlad was old enough to leave
32:53and go back to his own people, he did.
32:55He came back to his own land as a 20-something
32:58and took his throne back and then reigned Wallachia
33:01quite successfully for quite a few years.
33:06I've missed you.
33:08This is the side of him that people might not know about.
33:11He had a family, he loved his wife.
33:14What an embrace, but no kiss.
33:16Are we going to argue?
33:18You're always leaving me my filth.
33:21He's not just this stone-wall warrior.
33:25I think with his family, he's able to become more of a human.
33:29He's trying to live a life of peace, raise his family
33:32and protect his people and try to stay away
33:34from the wars that plague Europe.
33:36Of course, it's this age-old issue of can you escape your destiny?
33:40Something troubles you, what is it?
33:46The Ottoman Empire was on the march in this period in history
33:50and were absolutely putting Europe in their sights.
33:53Mehmed II created the Ottoman Empire by sacking Constantinople
33:57and ending, effectively, the Byzantine.
34:00No!
34:01The Turks were incredibly successful at conquering nations.
34:05Mehmed's intention is to invade Europe
34:07and his forces have come up through Greece, through Thrace.
34:11They would be following the Danube into Europe.
34:14He'd be moving his arms along those routes.
34:17So unfortunately for the Wallachians, for Vlad's kingdom,
34:21it's on the way to what he wants.
34:23Vlad is motivated by a very powerful promise he made to his wife
34:28that they'll always be protected.
34:30The day you asked for my hand, do you remember what I said?
34:33He said no.
34:34You said things would be different.
34:36You said if I loved you, I should trust you.
34:39I love you.
34:40Then trust me, it's this or we start a war.
34:43His predicament kind of brings to mind
34:45how much of your principle would you sell out
34:48to protect those who are important to you
34:50or does the end justify the mean?
34:53I will not let you die.
34:56Vlad was a warrior, he was a leader, he was a fighter,
35:00and he was a man who stopped the Ottoman invasion of Europe.
35:05He stopped it dead in its tracks, which is a historical fact.
35:09The Ottoman Empire is something that has left its legacy
35:12and we're very aware of it nowadays,
35:14and if it wasn't for Vlad and a few other countries,
35:17you know, England might not be England
35:20and Wales might not be Wales.
35:22It would be a very different place.
35:24The way I looked at it when I initially took it on
35:27was this is a historical story.
35:29It happens to make a segue into fiction,
35:31but it has to be treated first and foremost
35:33as a history with, you know, real people and real facts.
35:37The writers did a great job of merging the factual history,
35:41which is Vlad the Impaler, with the fictional story,
35:44which is Dracula, which we're all very aware of.
35:47Once you drink, your thirst for human blood will be insatiable.
35:53It's the origins story of Dracula.
35:57Not a ghost. Something else.
36:00As told through the lens of Vlad the Impaler
36:04and puts it all together into an origins hero story.
36:07I thought they did a very clever job of mixing the two
36:11and creating a story that was both appealing, inspiring, enjoyable,
36:16and also something reminiscent of something very historical.
36:20It's heroic.
36:21You have not seen a lot of Dracula stories that are heroic.
36:24If you're going to start a story about such a legendary character
36:27who does exist throughout centuries,
36:29what better place to start than the beginning?
36:34It just draws you in.
36:37DRACULA
36:48OK, let's roll camera, please. Ready? Action!
37:06This is the 1,000-man fight where Vlad, in his rage,
37:10cuts his way through 1,000 worth of the Turkish army.
37:14This is where you actually see Vlad use his newly found powers
37:20as a vampire.
37:23He basically stops 1,000 men in their tracks.
37:31We've been prepping this fight now for about three, four months.
37:34We've been rehearsing extensively with the stunt team and also with Luke.
37:37The training for this has been insane and I have to keep it up
37:40because the fighting that I do in this film demands strength.
37:43It's not something that you can just pick up a sword
37:46and just learn a choreography.
37:47This is a physically demanding fight.
37:49I mean, technically, he's going through seven, eight sections of guys.
37:54It is an epic fight and Luke knew the fight frontwards and backwards.
37:58It's quite long and what makes it unique,
38:00it's a very linear fight that travels a great distance
38:03and to tell the story of Vlad fighting a 1,000-fold army,
38:09it's a little daunting to make that work.
38:14We had to break it down into sections that would effectively fit inside the stage.
38:21Once he fought one section and got to the end of the stage,
38:24we literally just start him back at the other end of the stage on section two
38:28and then he fights section two and gets to the end of the stage.
38:31So, literally, he just fought like a typewriter.
38:36It's full-on. It's relentless, you know.
38:39Let's go. See what I mean?
38:46We had to work out who was getting pulled out by a wire,
38:49who was getting stabbed, who was getting swords left in him,
38:52who was getting sliced.
38:59Ah!
39:11Speed for video. Three, two, one, go.
39:15We're shooting stunt choreography of Vlad cutting through the stunt performers
39:19and we've got lots of extras.
39:21Essentially, we've got 100 extras, low armour and high armour,
39:24who are the front rank of the Turkish army.
39:26Where the blue screen is, we'll be extending what is 100 people in here
39:30into the 1,000-man army.
39:32CLICK
39:55Action!
39:58We tried to encompass a lot of skill that you wouldn't really see
40:02in a sword fight or a hand-to-hand fight.
40:04I think they wanted to see, really, Vlad in all his glory.
40:11At the end of the sequence, Vlad chucks a sword into a Turk.
40:21And then we become that Turk's POV,
40:23so as he's wheeling around and fighting,
40:25we're looking into the sword that's in his chest
40:28and seeing the reflection of what Vlad is doing
40:31up to the moment he hits the ground and pulls the sword away.
40:56That is a picture wrap for Mr Luke Evans!
41:06I want to thank everybody so much for all our incredible hard work.
41:10Every single one of you has played a massive part
41:13in making all of this possible.
41:15Vlad versus 1,000, yeah.
41:17Felt like I've killed about 1,000 men.
41:20No, it was great. It was really good.
41:22It's going to be an awesome scene in the film, awesome.
41:27There's some incredible guys there
41:29and they've really committed so much energy and effort and patience.
41:32It's a very, very long day.
41:39Happy days.