Posted in: ABC, TV | Tagged: ABC, bleeding cool, cable, Chris Mason, dracula, erin richards, gina torres, Goran Visnjic, gotham, greg berlanti, Katherine Reis, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Sophia Tatum, streaming, television, the brides, tv
"The Brides": "Gotham" Alum Erin Richards Joins ABC Pilot for Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Greg Berlanti's "Dracula" Take
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Riverdale, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) and Greg Berlanti's (You, Batwoman) The Brides has rounded out Count Dracula's (Goran Visnjic) three brides – with Gotham alum Erin Richards set for the final lead role. The actress joins Visnjic, Gina Torres, Katherine Reis, Chris Mason, and Sophia Tatum on what ABC describes as a "vampire soap" about empowered, immortal women and the things they do to maintain wealth, prestige, legacy — and their nontraditional family.
● Torres' Cleo Phillips is one of the three Brides of Dracula and the leader of this vampire trio. An imperious woman with a queenly manner—understandably, as Cleo was a queen in her former life. Turned by Dracula after the death of her husband, Cleo is now a maven of New York City real estate. Cleo finds herself challenged professionally by a mysterious newcomer —even as her ties to her sisters are dangerously fraying.
● Richards' Renée Pélagie is another of Dracula's three brides, the head of a top modeling agency in New York City, known for her torrid affairs with her beautiful female models. In her former life, she was the wife of the Marquis de Sade when she invited Dracula into her "house of pain" and asked to be "turned" by him.
● Reis' Lily Stevens is the youngest of the three Brides of Dracula, a striving singer in New York City whose relationship to a news reporter threatens to tear apart her marriage to her "sisters." In her former life, she braved the streets of Jack the Ripper's London, until being "rescued" by Dracula.
● Visnjic's Count Dracula is the powerful, ageless King of Night who had "turned" each of his three brides, but has been left for dead at his destroyed castle in the Carpathian mountains while his three wives — Cleo, Renée, and Lily — flee to start a new life together.
● Mason's Roland Grant, a stylish real estate mogul who arrives in town to challenge Cleo — the "Queen of New York City real estate," and the leader of the brides of Dracula — for professional supremacy. With secret ties to Dracula, Roland has a personal stake in the destruction of the Brides.
● Tatum's Justine Strang is completely friendless and new to town – showing up at the studio of Renée Pélagie, a top modeling agent in New York City — and the "middle" bride of Dracula. Renée soon takes this young, hungry, aspiring model under her wing – unaware that Justine may have a past with Dracula as well.
The series will take its inspiration from the infamous "Brides of Dracula" found in Stoker's novel as well as in some television and film adaptations. Aguirre-Sacasa will write and executive produce, with Maggie Kiley (Riverdale, American Horror Story) set to direct the pilot and executive produce – alongside Berlanti and Sarah Schechter for Berlanti Productions. The Brides will be a co-production between ABC Studios and Warner Bros. Television, where both Aguirre-Sacasa and Berlanti are under rich overall deals.