It looks like Nicolas Cage is really sinking his teeth into a new role.
Fans got a peek at the 58-year-old actor's portrayal of Dracula after he was photographed on the set of his new movie Renfield in New Orleans on March 22.
In the photos, Cage could be seen wearing a blood-red suit, pale makeup, long fingernails, a gelled-back 'do and an array of gold and colorful rings for his take on the vampire.
According to Variety, the 2023 movie will be a modern-day tale focused on Dracula's henchman Renfield, played by Nicholas Hoult. In pictures obtained by People, which was first to publish the images, the 32-year-old actor was also spotted on set, donning a purple sweatshirt and jeans and covered in fake blood.
Dracula was introduced in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel by the same name. And during a December episode of Variety's Awards Circuit podcast, Cage noted he's an "enormous fan" of both the book and the character.
Over the years, a number of stars—including Gary Oldman, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Christopher Lee and Bela Lugosi—have taken on the role, and Cage said he looked back at a few earlier versions.
"I looked at Bela Lugosi's performance, and then I looked at Frank Langella's performance….It was actually very, very cool," he said. "And then I looked at Gary's performance in uncle's [Francis Ford Coppola] movie, which I think is just so sumptuous. Every frame is a work of art."
Still, Cage wanted to make the character his own. "I was like, 'What can I bring that will be different?'" he continued. "Because I want it to pop in a unique way. We've seen it played well and we've seen it played not-so-well. So what can we do?"
For him, this meant focusing on Dracula's movement and voice. But finding a new twist on the character isn't the only thing that makes him excited about the movie. "For me, what makes it super fun is that it's a comedy," he said on the podcast. "And when you get that tone right, comedy and horror, like American Werewolf in London, it's a blast. You gotta get it right. It's gotta be a bull's-eye, but that's what I'm looking for—something new to bring to the character and also that perfect tone of comedy and horror."