Miramax has driven a stake through Mina Harker, the long-awaited Dracula film that Karyn Kusama had been hoping to direct since 2020. News about the production’s cancellation spread like wild garlic this week, with industry insiders attributing the move to creative differences between the studio and filmmaker.

Filming was set to start in just three weeks on the Blumhouse production, which was touted as a contemporary interpretation of Bram Stoker’s iconic 1897 horror narrative, set in today’s Los Angeles.

The Mina Harker script was co-authored by Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay and was to have featured Jasmine Cephas Jones in the title role. Kusama was thought to be an ideal choice for the project due to her past involvements with the horror and action genres. Her debut feature, Girlfight, released in 2000, won prizes at Sundance and Cannes. She came to prominence on such films as The Invitation and Nicole Kidman’s Destroyer. Kusama also directed Jennifer’s Body, a comedy thriller, as well as episodes of The Outsider, an HBO product based on the eponymous Stephen King novel. She also directed one of the segments in XX, the all-female horror anthology flick that was released in 2017. In addition, she served as a pilot director and executive producer for Yellowjackets, a new Showtime series.

Jasmine Cephas Jones is best known for her work on Broadway, having originated the roles of Peggy Schuler and Maria Reynolds in the acclaimed musical Hamilton. In 2020, she was awarded a Primetime Emmy for her role as the wife of the leading character in #FreeRayshawn, a drama about the travails of an African American Iraqi war veteran.