Deep in the mountains of Carpathia lies the mysterious and mythic land of Transylvania-a world where evil is ever-present, where danger rises as the sun sets, and where the monsters that inhabit man's deepest nightmares take from.
In on order of a secret society, travels to Transylvania to bring down the lethally seductive, enigmatically powerful Count Dracula (RichardRoxburgh) and joins forces eith the fearless Anna Valerious (Kate Beckinsale, out to rid her family of a generations-old curse by defeating the vampire.
As the new night nurse at a soon to be abandoned children’s hospital readies the last group of orphans to leave, something in the hospital the children call the “mechanical girl,” has a terrifying hold over them and will stop at nothing to keep them in the hospital with her forever.
Blonde Australian actorRichardRoxburgh, sporting a vaguely awkward accent as Holmes, does a competent, if not terribly convincing, job with a script that is bereft of any of the quirkiness or deductive genius one hopes to see in a Holmes performance.
Instead he is portrayed as a relatively normal, but smug man-of-action type (he roughs up cabby John Clayton to get the info he needs) who resorts to cocaine to stimulate his thought processes rather than to relieve boredom between cases.
Like so many actors portraying Holmes before him, we know Roxburgh is Sherlock Holmes not because of his mannerisms or physical appearance, but rather because people call him Mister Holmes and he lives at 221b Baker Street with a fellow called Watson.
Born the youngest of six siblings in Albury, Australia, Roxburgh's interest in acting wasn't sparked until he became somewhat disillusioned with studying economics (his father was a successful accountant) at A.N.U. in Canberra.
Though Roxburgh's onscreen exposure, to this point, had been limited mostly to European audiences, all of that changed in the early 2000s.
Roxburgh's later role as legendary sleuth Sherlock Holmes in 2002's The Hound of the Baskervilles courted controversy by depicting Holmes as a drug addict, and, in 2003, he suited up to fight crime once again in the comic book adaptation The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Roxburgh earned critical acclaim for his work but ironically the show was not aired in his home province of New South Wales for nearly six years because of lawsuits.
Roxburgh next played a pair of real-life characters, Australian government official William Hobbs in the miniseries "Frontier" and Ronald Ryan, the last man to be hanged in the country, in the TV-movie "The Last of the Ryans" (both 1997).
Richard had to redub his dialogue for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen because the mouth piece he had to wear as the Fantom distorted his voice.
According to Richard, who first grabbed the limelight as the villainous duke in pursuit of Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge ; although it was one of those instant attractions between him and Silvia, it scarcely developed as a straightforward relationship.
Richard, who teams up with Hugh Jackman, Kate Beckinsale and newcomer Will Kemp in the big budget romp, says that one of the prime attractions of doing Van Helsing was the fact that he is a fan of the classic Universal Dracula and Wolfman movies that stars legendary stars like Bela Lugosi.
For the inevitable Dracula fangs Richard went to a specialist dentist who took a moulding of his teeth shape and then the fangs were constructed.
RichardRoxburgh, who plays Count Dracula in Universal's upcoming Van Helsing, says he worked on finding out about his role.
Roxburgh revealed he used Bela Lugosi's classic portrayal of Dracula for part of his role, because he says he "absolutely loved Legosi as The Count," and also "because [writer-director] Steve [Sommers] was interested in pursuing a sense of the old Universal films."
Roxburgh says he tried to avoid verging his character into camp.
Roxburgh plays the time-honored role of Count Dracula in "Van Helsing," the hotly anticipated adventure horror thriller from "The Mummy" writer and director Stephen Sommers.
The key to avoid to sounding silly, Roxburgh said, was to practice the lines as if you were honing foreign language skills.
Part of the reason it was fun for Roxburgh was that, unlike Hensley and the actor's Frankenstein Monster, he didn't have to undergo four hours in morning makeup sessions to turn into the Hellbeast version of Dracula.
Richard Roxburgh(Site not responding. Last check: )
The youngest of six siblings, RichardRoxburgh was born in Albury, New South Wales, Australia.
As a director, Richard won the 1994 Sydney Theatre Critics' Circle John Tasker Award for That Eye in the Sky.
Roxburgh continued to pay his dues by working steadily in stage productions, small budget films and TV productions until 1996, when he landed a sizeable role in the Australian feature, Children of the Revolution, starring Judy Davis, Geoffrey Rush, Rachel Griffiths and F. Murray Abraham.
Roxburgh earned critical acclaim for his work but ironically the show was not aired in his home province of New South Wales for nearly six years because of lawsuits.
Fresh off that triumph, Roxburgh could be seen as political insurgent Joe Welsh, the reputed illegitimate son of Joseph Stalin in the fl comedy "Children of the Revolution" (1996).
Roxburgh next played a pair of real-life characters, Australian government official William Hobbs in the miniseries "Frontier" and Ronald Ryan, the last man to be hanged in the country, in the TV-movie "The Last of the Ryans" (both 1997).
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Starring Tom Cruise, Dougray Scott, Thandie Newton, Ving Rhames, RichardRoxburgh, Anthony Hopkins, John Polson, Brendan Gleeson, Rade Serbedzija, William Mapother.
That place has been quite busy the last couple of weeks.
Sideshow Toys is making Van Helsing line that will include a 12" doll of Roxburgh in human form.
Good news for all of you who were looking for Roxburgh's story in the recent Sunday Telegraph...I bought a copy and should arrive at my house hopefully any day now.
RICHARDROXBURGH most recently completed ROAD TO COORAIN, THE and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2 (2000).
Roxburgh has also starred in CLOSER for director Marion Potts, THE HOMECOMING directed by Rodney Fisher, and BURN THIS directed by Wayne Harrison, all for the Sydney Theatre Company.
Roxburgh's direction of the adaptation of the novel THAT EYE THE SKY, for Burning House Theatre Company, won the Sydney Theatre Critics' Circle John
News about RichardRoxburgh continually updated from thousands of sources around the net.
When he was a drama student at the prestigious National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney, Australia, RichardRoxburgh didn't really concern himself with a film career.
September 17, 2003 - A year before it's in theaters, Van Helsing - writer-director Stephen Sommers ' epic monster romp starring Hugh Jackman, Kate Bekinsale and RichardRoxburgh - has already spawned a TV...
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It is the funny and moving story of young Ort Flack trying to come to terms with getting older, his father's near fatal car accident, a strange cloud that hangs over their Western Australia home, and a tormented stranger who might just be there for wicked purposes...
