‘Dracula Untold’ Star Dominic Cooper Praises Director Gary Shore’s Visual Effects, Fight Scenes

Dracula Untold star Dominic Cooper has praised the film’s director, Gary Shore, for the spectacular visual effects and fight scenes he created for the movie. The new adaptation of the story of the well-known vampire is not like those past films where we see a blood thirsty creature searching for its next victim.

In this case, Dracula Untold is described as an origin story, meaning that Shore will be telling us about how the daddy of all vampires came to be. Forget Edward Cullen of the Twilight Saga; in this new adaptation, based on Bram Stoker’s novel of old, we meet a man who is living peacefully and reigns over a prosperous kingdom — until the forces of evil threaten his family.

Luke Evans will star in the role of Dracula — the first leading roles for the popular Welsh actor — who you may have also seen in Fast & Furious 7, The Raven, and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, in which he reprises the role of Bard the Bowman, the human who fights the evil dragon Smaug.

The pair have worked together in the past, starring in the 2010 rom-com Tamara Drewe, where they played antagonists fighting for the same woman’s affections. In Dracula Untold it’s much of the same; they stand on opposite camps, as Cooper plays an evil sultan, Mehmed II, who tries to destroy Count Dracula/Vlad, the Impaler’s family.

In a recent interview with Total Film, Cooper had very encouraging words for Shore, who is making his directorial debut in a big movie. The Brit had a lot to say about how the former commercials director handles fighting scenes and visual effects. Dominic Cooper told the magazine:

“There’s one particular sequence called ‘the hand of the bat’ that I can’t wait for the audience to see. There’s a superhero analogy throughout the film, and trust me, you wouldn’t have seen Vlad use those powers on a grand scale before.”

“Fights need to look amazing and heroic but they need to feel disgusting. You need to be appalled by the violence, because that’s what a fight would be like.

“On a bigger scale, visually, he (Shore) mixes it well with the huge choreographed battle sequences which are stunning to watch. When you see a whole army of men taken down by one man, it’s also got to look realistic to a point.

“Whatever powers he’s capable of mustering, you still want to believe that his power is having an effect and it’s not just some CGI thing.”

Luke Evans also shared similar thoughts during a recent Q&A with fans on Twitter, saying the fighting scenes were very involved and are some of the hardest he’s ever done in any of his films. Dracula Untold is slated to fly into theaters on October 17.

[Image via Universal Pictures]