This is spot-on casting, if you ask me
Tilda Swinton may join the long line of actresses who have played Erzsébeth Báthory.
The Chronicles of Narnia and Constantine star is attached to play the eponymous role in The Blood Countess for writer-director Ulrike Ottinger. Unlike the two most recent films about the aristocrat who would bathe in the blood of virgins, The Countess and Bathory, Ottinger’s take sounds a bit far out and fantastical.
Impatiently awaiting the arrival of her devoted maid Hermine, the countess Erzsébeth Báthory, also known as La Comtesse Sanglante, a tigress in human disguise, ascends into open daylight. At breathtaking speed, the two women race through a Vienna of ghoulish beauty. Their entourage: Báthory’s nephew Bubi, a vegetarian vampire who refuses to follow family traditions, his therapist, two wacky vampirologists, some members of the duelling fraternity “Vampiria,” an all-female music ensemble, and many more.
Viennese blood is shed by the buckets while the hearts of the present Habsburgians and Viennese beat high. This is a cracked journey to the roots of a myth that has lost nothing of its appeal: to the Vampyre Empire! Naturally, the showdown takes place at Vienna´s “Prater” – during a midnight supper on that fair´s famous Ferris wheel.
Isabelle Huppert is rumored to play Swinton’s maid. Doing a bit of digging, I’ve found that Swinton has been in talks to play The Blood Countess since Cannes of last year. It’s still highly possible she’s going to be involved, however, I just wanted to point how long this project has been gestating.
Source: Ulrike Ottinger
