By: Ray Flook (Bleeding Cool)
12 March 2021
If there's one thing that Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Riverdale, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) is not, it's lacking in projects to work on. With The CW's Riverdale currently running through its fifth season, the series' creator also has The Shelley Society and Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin coming up for HBO Max and an untitled fourth "Archieverse" title in development. And yet it was his 2020 pilot for The Brides with Greg Berlanti's (You, Batwoman) that wasn't picked up to series is the one he can't let go of- and considering it has a cast the included Gina Torres, Goran Visnjic, Erin Richards, Katherine Reis, Chris Mason, and Sophia Tatum, it's easy to understand why. Aguirre-Sacasa is sharing a look at what he described as a "vampire soap" about empowered, immortal women and the things they do to maintain wealth, prestige, legacy, and their non-traditional family.
Here's a look at the extended trailer/preview for what would've been The Brides– though as you'll see from the caption accompanying it, Aguirre-Sacasa isn't quite done with the project yet: "A year later, the ladies haven't seen the light of day…yet":
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 took its inspiration from the infamous "Brides of Dracula" found in Stoker's novel as well as in some television and film adaptations. Aguirre-Sacasa wrote and executive produced, with Maggie Kiley (Riverdale, American Horror Story) directing the pilot and executive producing – alongside Berlanti and Sarah Schechter for Berlanti Productions. The Brides was a co-production between ABC Studios and Warner Bros. Television, where both Aguirre-Sacasa and Berlanti are under overall deals.
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