'Renfield' director Chris McKay shares Nicolas Cage's 'frosty' approach to playing Dracula and the studio's initial 'concern' about the movie's gore

• Director Chris McKay told Insider that Universal was initially worried "Renfield" was too gory.
• "They were really concerned in how disgusting it was," McKay said of an early scene featuring Nicolas Cage's Dracula.
• The director also said the studio gave him an extra $1 million to complete a major action sequence.

After directing "The Lego Batman Movie" in 2017 and "The Tomorrow War" in 2021, director Chris McKay's latest "Renfield" showcases the filmmaker's evolution as he delivers a modern-day Dracula tale that's filled with laughs, action, and gore.

Nicolas Cage plays the prince of darkness, but the movie's main focus is on Dracula's long-suffering servant R. M. Renfield (played by Nicholas Hoult) who is ready to exit this toxic relationship after centuries of being at his master's beck and call.

Living in modern-day New Orleans, while Dracula is recovering from his latest battle, Renfield is a regular at a support group and falls for traffic cop Rebecca (Awkwafina). Now, he hopes he's emotionally strong enough to escape, though Dracula teaming with a drug cartel complicates things.

Out Friday, "Renfield" is fueled by the fun interactions between Cage and Hoult, Awkwafina's foul mouth, and the numerous top-flight action sequences that are filled with a surprising amount of gore. — an aspect McKay admits the studio releasing the movie, Universal, initially wasn't too keen on.

McKay revealed to Insider the steps he took to get Universal to buy into his bloody Dracula movie and eventually give him an extra $1 million to make one action scene perfect. He also talked about interacting with Cage between shooting scenes, and his hopes for a theatrical release for "The Tomorrow War" sequel.

The movie plays outside the box with horror, action, comedy, and it sounds like that vibe started from the very beginning with the unconventional way you did the camera test with Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult. 

Yeah. 

You actually created a set and played the score from Francis Ford Coppola's "Bram Stoker's Dracula." Why go the extra mile like that on just a camera test?

Universal gave us a certain budget to shoot this movie, it was generous but obviously the ambition for our movie was big with the action, practical effects, and all the locations, so you have to set the tone as quickly as possible.

I had such a great production designer in Alec Hammond. I told him I want the camera test to feel like we're shooting the movie. I want people to be into it. When the executives see Cage as Dracula for the first time I want there to be mist and candelabras and play the score from Coppola's "Dracula." Suddenly everyone got what we were making.

As you mention, Universal is going to have a ceiling in regards to money it will put in for a movie like this, so when you set the tone early like that, does it help later on when you may need to go back and ask for some more money?

When the footage is coming in great and for the most part you're staying on budget and on time it does help. There was a scene where I needed to go back while were still shooting and get some more footage because we were dealing with COVID and there was a close-contact situation so we couldn't shoot certain things.

So in that instance, Universal did step up and gave us extra money, an extra million dollars actually, to shoot some more footage. 

Was it a significant scene?

Basically it was the restaurant fight scene. 

Definitely significant! It's a major part of the trailer. 

Yeah. It's a big scene. So, because of the way things happened with close contact, we had to move some people around and move shooting days around so we didn't get everything that we wanted for that scene. So they gave us the very end of the schedule, the money to go back in there and we were able to add in some key moments from the sequence.

That's the moment when Renfield does things for the first time outside of the world of Dracula. Also, we are able to introduce the Jackie Chan vibe of the movie with the mix of action and comedy. 

"Renfield" is very much a Jackie Chan movie mixed with the gore of Peter Jackson's "Dead Alive," would that be fair to say?

[Laughs.] Yes. Peter Jackson and even Sam Raimi, both their spirits hover over our movie. I'm a huge fan of both. 

Was Universal surprised by that action and gore? I mean, I'm sure you explained the tone, but when they actually saw footage were they like, "Shit, he meant it!" 

There was a little bit of that. When I pitched the project, one of the reference points I put out there was "Evil Dead 2" and "Dead Alive" and "Zombieland," "American Werewolf in London."

There was concern that things would go too far but they also allowed me to go too far so we had the footage to be able to dial things up and dial things down when needed.

Even Nic Cage's makeup, when he's brutally injured in the beginning, they were really concerned in how disgusting it was. 

I interviewed Wendi McLendon-Covey once when she did a movie with Nicolas Cage called "Army of One." She admitted she never actually met the real Nic Cage on that set because he was always in character. Was Cage in character as Dracula between takes on "Renfield?"

That's for the most part correct. Obviously I have to have conversations with him, I've got a lot of reference and he's a cinephile and there's a lot of touch points and we have to have a real conversation, because he's going to come in with ideas.

On the first few takes I try not to interfere too much. But you also have to remember he's covered head to toe in Dracula makeup so it's a different thing. He can't even bend his body very much because he's got a whole body appliance. So he's Dracula whether he wants to be Dracula or not. 

But to the point that when you're having these serious conversations, is he still in the voice?

[Laughs.] I've gotta say he would still be in the attitude of the scene. Whatever scene we did he would still be 100% living in that attitude after we stopped shooting. So if he's a little frosty in the scene he's going to have a little bit of that between takes. But still up for whatever we were doing. 

[Editor's note: When Cage was asked by The Hollywood Reporter about him being in character between scenes, the actor said: "I just don't have that recollection, I don't know why Chris said that. I had a lot of laughs in between takes with both Chris McKay and Nick Hoult, so maybe that was his experience, maybe because I still had the fangs in my mouth that made me speak a certain way, but that wasn't my experience."]

It seems with movies like this, "Cocaine Bear," and, coming this summer "Joy Ride," that the hard R movie is back. Are you getting that sense when you're taking meetings around town, that audiences want that hard R flavor back in their movies?

I agree with what you're saying but I would also say something I've noticed is that studios are looking for reasons for people to want to go back to movies in movie theaters. That can be epic scope like a Marvel or "Avatar," but there are some comedies and action movies that are meant to be seen in movie theaters.

So something that's R-rated and pushing the envelope, something you're not going to get on a Netflix or something else, that falls into that category too, I believe. And that includes characters they've had in their vault for over 100 years. 

That leads me to my next question, with what you've done here with Dracula, I would have to think you've talked to Universal or even Blumhouse about diving into the projects they are developing with the studio's classic monster IPs. Does that interest you to go deeper? 

I love Universal monster and horror movies, so I'd love to continue to play with that. 

So have you had meetings?

[Laughs.] I literally, just before I flew to New York, I had a meeting with Jason Blum to talk about stuff. So we'll see what happens, but it's stuff I would love to do. 

Any update on "The Tomorrow War" sequel?

There's a script that's landing in a couple of weeks and I'm really looking forward to reading it. 

The first movie was released streaming on Prime Video, do you want this next one to be theatrical?

Absolutely. We made the first one for theaters but we finished the movie during the pandemic and just realized we couldn't do it. So Amazon stepped up.

I would love to put this one out in theaters just because the scope is huge with this franchise. I hope people had a good experience watching the movie at home but if you saw that movie in a movie theater with the sound design that was put together, the scope of it, Chris Pratt's performance, it was really meant for a movie theater. 

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.