IMAX Corporation and Universal Pictures, a division of Comcast Corp. and Legendary Pictures recently announced that “Dracula Untold,” the origin story of the man who became Dracula, starring Luke Evans (“Fast & Furious 6,” “The Hobbit” series), will be digitally re-mastered into the immersive IMAX® format and released into IMAX® theatres internationally, including The Philippines, beginning Oct. 15, 2014.

Gary Shore directs and Michael De Luca produces this epic action-adventure that co-stars Sarah Gadon, Dominic Cooper, Diarmaid Murtagh and Samantha Barks.

"Dracula is perhaps the most iconic horror story ever told, and this new twist on this classic tale is sure to appeal to IMAX audiences around the world," said Greg Foster, CEO of IMAX Entertainment and Senior Executive Vice President, IMAX Corp. "We're excited to have the opportunity to once again partner with the terrific team at Universal and our long time collaborators at Legendary as we present this exciting film in IMAX."

The IMAX release of “Dracula Untold” will be digitally re-mastered into the image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience® with proprietary IMAX DMR® (Digital Re-mastering) technology. The crystal-clear images, coupled with IMAX's customized theatre geometry and powerful digital audio, create a unique environment that will make audiences feel as if they are in the movie.

“Dracula Untold” begins in the year is 1462, and Transylvania has enjoyed a prolonged period of peace under the just and fair rule of the battle-weary Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (Luke Evans), and his beloved and brave wife, Mirena (Sarah Gadon). Together, they have brokered peace for their country and ensured its people are well-protected, especially from the powerful Ottoman Empire—an ever-expanding scourge that has its sights on global domination.

But when Sultan Mehmed II (Dominic Cooper) demands 1,000 of Wallachia’s boys—including Vlad’s own son, Ingeras (Art Parkinson)—be torn from their parents’ homes and forced to become child soldiers in his army, Vlad must decide: do the same as his father before him and give up his son to the sultan, or seek the help of a monster to defeat the Turks but ultimately doom his soul to a life of servitude.

Vlad journeys to Broken Tooth Mountain, where he encounters a foul demon (Charles Dance) and enters into a Faustian bargain—one that gives the prince the strength of 100 men, the speed of a falling star and enough power to crush his enemies. However, he will be inflicted with an insatiable thirst to drink human blood.

If by the end of three days Vlad manages to resist, he will return to his former self, and perhaps in that time manage to save his people. Though should he drink, he will be forced to dwell in the darkness for the rest of his days, feeding only on the blood of humans…and destroying all that he holds dear.

Opening across the Philippines on October 15, “Dracula Untold” is distributed by United International Pictures through Columbia Pictures.

Best known for her work in “A Dangerous Method” (opposite Keira Knightley and Michael Fassbender) and the recent blockbuster “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” upcoming actress Sarah Gadon plays Mirena, Prince Vlad’s light and moral compass, in Universal Pictures' action-adventure “Dracula Untold.”

When director Gary Shore began the process of casting Mirena, Vlad’s wife, he had in his mind a woman who was the antithesis of her husband: one who was of purity and light. The director explains: “Mirena is the innocence in all of this. When you see Vlad’s journey to the dark side, you have to have a counterpoint and Mirena is that. She stays pure all the way to the end—pure virtues, pure values. She doesn’t become morally corrupt.”

Although Mirena may not become deficient in her ethics, she is partly responsible for her husband becoming a vampire by pressuring Vlad not to hand over their son, Ingeras (played by Game of Thrones’ Art Parkinson), to Mehmed.

Sarah Gadon agrees with her director: “Mirena is the moral compass of the film. She’s the one who is unwavering in her belief and unwavering in her ideas. Every time her principles are tested, she rises to the occasion and fights for them.”

Gadon, knew that her character would have to go to a very dark place to understand Vlad’s transformation. She shares: “Even though this film has a good deal of history, their romance feels very contemporary. Here’s a warrior, a prince, a fighter and a leader going out and risking his life for his people and his family, and that makes sense to a contemporary family. Think of Army wives and soldiers going off to war. That made us feel as if the story was real and weighted in reality.”

During the casting process, the Canada native shined among her peers, and the decision to cast her came down to her presence. Shore commends the film’s leading lady: “There is something very old Hollywood about Sarah, something classical. She complemented that balance I wanted to get between the dark and brooding and the light and purity. She nailed it.”

“Dracula Untold” begins in the year is 1462, and Transylvania has enjoyed a prolonged period of peace under the just and fair rule of the battle-weary Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (Luke Evans), and his beloved and brave wife, Mirena (Sarah Gadon). Together, they have brokered peace for their country and ensured its people are well-protected, especially from the powerful Ottoman Empire—an ever-expanding scourge that has its sights on global domination.

But when Sultan Mehmed II (Dominic Cooper) demands 1,000 of Wallachia’s boys—including Vlad’s own son, Ingeras (Art Parkinson)—be torn from their parents’ homes and forced to become child soldiers in his army, Vlad must decide: do the same as his father before him and give up his son to the sultan, or seek the help of a monster to defeat the Turks but ultimately doom his soul to a life of servitude.

Vlad journeys to Broken Tooth Mountain, where he encounters a foul demon (Charles Dance) and enters into a Faustian bargain—one that gives the prince the strength of 100 men, the speed of a falling star and enough power to crush his enemies. However, he will be inflicted with an insatiable thirst to drink human blood.

If by the end of three days Vlad manages to resist, he will return to his former self, and perhaps in that time manage to save his people. Though should he drink, he will be forced to dwell in the darkness for the rest of his days, feeding only on the blood of humans…and destroying all that he holds dear.

Opening across the Philippines on October 15, “Dracula Untold” is distributed by United International Pictures through Columbia Pictures.

Finding an actor who could embody Dracula, a character full of complex emotions—all while overriding preconceived conceptions of a world-renowned creature—was going to be a challenge for the filmmakers of Universal Pictures' “Dracula Untold.”

He is so multilayered—as a loving father and devoted husband, ruthless warrior and learned man—yet the screenplay also combines history with fiction: the heritage of Vlad III with the folklore of a creature of many names…from Kaziglu Bey to the Dark Prince.

Producer Michael De Luca extrapolates upon the conundrum: “Casting is a tricky proposition with a character that everyone knows because we all have our preconceived version of Dracula. It’s a bit like Spider-Man, Batman or James Bond…only more so because the character’s been in popular culture for centuries.”

It was clear from the beginning that the production team needed a fresh face who could own and embody such an iconic character…someone whose star was on the rise but who did not come with a number of audience preconceptions.

British actor Luke Evans had recently made an impression on filmmakers with his portrayal of Bard the Bowman in “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” as well as in “Fast & Furious 6” as the film’s villain, Owen Shaw.

“We all thought Luke Evans was magnetic in `Fast & Furious 6,' and that’s what truly announced him to the studio as a star on the rise,” De Luca explains. “A fresh face was the right way to go. Luke can be Vlad for the audience without a lot of preconceived baggage from whom he’s played before.”

As the London stage-trained Evans was shooting the first chapter of “The Hobbit” series in New Zealand at the time, many of his early meetings with the filmmakers were conducted via Skype. “Skype is an actor’s best friend,” Evans says, wryly. “If you’re traveling the world, it’s the only way you can communicate with people, and that’s how [director] Gary Shore and I first connected.

“The second I met him,” Evans continues, “I could tell that this man was a very passionate human being. He’d thought out the job, the characters, the story, the plot; he’d imagined everything. He was looking for somebody who was going to deliver what he wanted and have the same passion and same vigor for telling the story as he did.”

It was their first meeting in Los Angeles that convinced Shore to cast Evans in the film. The director shares: “As soon as I started talking to him, it felt very right, and I knew that he would be able to do the character justice. He just has this incredible face that can tell a story. I was certain from that moment there was nobody else out there with the kind of presence Luke has to be able to take on Vlad the Impaler, the warrior, and transition that into the debonair prince. Just on a physicality level, he had my attention.”

Vlad III was many things to many people: ruthless dictator, unrivaled warrior, father, husband and rumored vampire. There are not many characters in film and literary history that present such a complex set of emotions and challenging transitions as Dracula. Having the audience rooting for a character with such a dark and violent past, and whose destiny is even darker and more threatening, is a tough order.

Shore walks us through his logic: “If you look at Dracula as an archetypal character, he’s an antihero you invest in and love throughout the film, but you can see he has to make difficult decisions and he’ll end up on his own because of them. Your hero is somebody who you generally shouldn’t like for their ruthlessness and what they have to do, but you respect them. It was a difficult arc to get right, but Luke did a terrific job.”

It’s all a question of balance, Evans suggests: “As much as you know about the dark side of Vlad, we wanted the audience to see the passionate, loving, vibrant side of him.”

Opening across the Philippines on October 15, “Dracula Untold” is distributed by United International Pictures through Columbia Pictures.

Exciting British actor Dominic Cooper (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Need for Speed”) stars as Mehmed, the nemesis of Prince Vlad (Luke Evans), in Universal Pictures' epic action-adventure, “Dracula Untold.” A dangerous adversary with a misplaced vengeance, Mehmed’s greed directly prompts Vlad’s transition into a creature of the night.

Director David Shore shares: “It’s easy to take it too over the top and be too ‘arch’ with this arch-nemesis character, so I wanted Mehmed to be engaging, charming, a conversationalist—a wonderful man to have in the room, but someone who you do not trust as far as you can throw!”

The filmmakers had seen Dominic Cooper in “The Devil’s Double” and were struck by his ability to be incredibly charming and yet, at a moment’s notice, switch to a psychotic state. Producer Michael De Luca relays: “Dominic has such range to go from Howard Stark in `Captain America' to what you see in `The Devil’s Double,' which was so intense. He was so in that character that we chased him, and felt blessed that we got him. Dominic brings a character actor’s intensity, with a movie star’s good looks.”

When Vlad reunites with Mehmed, there are tense and futile negotiations between the two. Once brothers in arms during the time that a younger Vlad unwillingly served Mehmed’s father in the Turkish army, they are soon to be revealed as sworn enemies.

Their first scene together is a vital exchange of information for the audience, as we grow to understand the relationship between Mehmed and Vlad…and the terror of Vlad’s dark past. Cooper provides: “It’s very much a performance played out to manipulate and to anger and to upset. But it also reveals their history together: that Mehmed’s father stole Vlad away from his own family to bring him up as a child warrior and that Vlad and Mehmed had a very close bond as children.”

The year is 1462, and Transylvania has enjoyed a prolonged period of peace under the just and fair rule of the battle-weary Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia, and his beloved and brave wife, Mirena (Sarah Gadon). Together, they have brokered peace for their country and ensured its people are well-protected, especially from the powerful Ottoman Empire—an ever-expanding scourge that has its sights on global domination.

But when Sultan Mehmed II (Dominic Cooper) demands 1,000 of Wallachia’s boys—including Vlad’s own son, Ingeras (Art Parkinson)—be torn from their parents’ homes and forced to become child soldiers in his army, Vlad must decide: do the same as his father before him and give up his son to the sultan, or seek the help of a monster to defeat the Turks but ultimately doom his soul to a life of servitude.

Vlad journeys to Broken Tooth Mountain, where he encounters a foul demon (Charles Dance) and enters into a Faustian bargain—one that gives the prince the strength of 100 men, the speed of a falling star and enough power to crush his enemies. However, he will be inflicted with an insatiable thirst to drink human blood.

If by the end of three days Vlad manages to resist, he will return to his former self, and perhaps in that time manage to save his people. Though should he drink, he will be forced to dwell in the darkness for the rest of his days, feeding only on the blood of humans…and destroying all that he holds dear.

Opening across the Philippines on October 15, “Dracula Untold” is distributed by United International Pictures through Columbia Pictures.

Almost an entire century after the world’s cinematic introduction to Dracula placed audiences under his haunting spell, the studio that pioneered the genre reawakens one of legend’s most captivating figures in an action-adventure that heralds a pulse-pounding rebirth of the age of monsters.

Luke Evans (Fast & Furious 6, The Hobbit series) transforms from the cursed man history knows as Vlad the Impaler to an all-powerful creature of the night in Universal Pictures’ Dracula Untold, the origin story of the alluring immortal we have come to fear as the sun sets: Dracula.

The year is 1462, and Transylvania has enjoyed a prolonged period of peace under the just and fair rule of the battle-weary Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia, and his beloved and brave wife, Mirena (Sarah Gadon of The Amazing Spider-Man 2). Together, they have brokered peace for their country and ensured its people are well-protected, especially from the powerful Ottoman Empire—an ever-expanding scourge that has its sights on global domination.

But when Sultan Mehmed II (Dominic Cooper of Captain America: The First Avenger) demands 1,000 of Wallachia’s boys—including Vlad’s own son, Ingeras (Art Parkinson of HBO’s Game of Thrones)—be torn from their parents’ homes and forced to become child soldiers in his army, Vlad must decide: do the same as his father before him and give up his son to the sultan, or seek the help of a monster to defeat the Turks but ultimately doom his soul to a life of servitude.

Vlad journeys to Broken Tooth Mountain, where he encounters a foul demon (Charles Dance of Game of Thrones) and enters into a Faustian bargain—one that gives the prince the strength of 100 men, the speed of a falling star and enough power to crush his enemies. However, he will be inflicted with an insatiable thirst to drink human blood.

If by the end of three days Vlad manages to resist, he will return to his former self, and perhaps in that time manage to save his people. Though should he drink, he will be forced to dwell in the darkness for the rest of his days, feeding only on the blood of humans…and destroying all that he holds dear.

In his feature-film directorial debut, Gary Shore helms the action-adventure Dracula Untold from a screenplay written by Matt Sazama & Burk Sharpless (Gods of Egypt).

Joining director Shore behind the screen is a top-notch crew of filmmakers, led by producer Michael de Luca (Captain Phillips, upcoming Fifty Shades of Grey), cinematographer John Schwartzman (The Amazing Spider-Man, upcoming Jurassic World), editor Richard Pearson (Maleficent, Iron Man 2), production designer Francois Audouy (The Wolverine, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter), Academy Award®-winning costume designer Ngila Dickson (Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King) and composer Ramin Djawadi (Pacific Rim).

Dracula Untold is executive produced by Alissa Phillips (Moneyball), Joe Caracciolo, Jr. (The Wolverine), Thomas Tull (Godzilla) and Jon Jashni (Pacific Rim).

Opening across the Philippines on October 15, “Dracula Untold” is distributed by United International Pictures through Columbia Pictures.

The main trailer for the epic action adventure "Dracula Untold" starring Luke Evans (“Fast and Furious 6,” “Immortals”), has just been released by Universal Pictures, along with three brand new images.

The trailer may be viewed at http://youtu.be/lKuvkciFbxg.

“Dracula Untold” is the origin story of the man who became Dracula. Gary Shore directs and Michael De Luca produces the film which co-stars Dominic Cooper, Sarah Gadon and Charles Dance.

Opening across the Philippines on October 15, 2014, “Dracula Untold” will be distributed by United International Pictures through Columbia Pictures.

The teaser trailer for the epic action adventure "Dracula Untold," the origin story of the man who became Dracula, starring Luke Evans (“Fast & Furious 6,” “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”), has been released by Universal Pictures.

The trailer may be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7U58w-Prho&feature=share&list=UU9vXJYvgswrEHfNveILWM2Q.

Gary Shore directs and Michael De Luca produces the film that co-stars Sarah Gadon, Dominic Cooper, Diarmaid Murtagh and Samantha Barks.

Opening across the Philippines on October 15, 2014, “Dracula Untold” will be distributed by United International Pictures through Columbia Pictures.

Universal Pictures and Legendary Pictures have unveiled the first one-sheet artworks from their upcoming epic action adventure "Dracula Untold," the origin story of the man who became Dracula, starring Luke Evans (“Fast & Furious 6,” “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”).

Blending historical elements from the life of Vlad the Impaler with fantasy and horror, Evans stars as Prince Vlad, a man who fights for his people and his family but makes a dark pact to ensure their protection. This pact sets him on a path into the supernatural until he becomes the legendary monster we all know.

Directed by Gary Shore and produced by Michael De Luca, the film also stars Sarah Gadon, Dominic Cooper, Diarmaid Murtagh and Samantha Barks.

Opening across the Philippines on October 15, 2014, “Dracula Untold” will be distributed by United International Pictures through Columbia Pictures.