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ABC Plans Supernatural Show Gothica

Deadline has broken the news of Janet Montgomery being the newest addition to the cast of ABC’s new pilot Gothica, a sexy, gothic soap set in the present day that weaves together a mythology that incorporates the legends of Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde, Frankenstein and Dorian Gray, among others.

It seems that Montgomery, who appeared CBS’ short-lived legal drama Made in Jersey, will take the starring role of Grace Van Helsing, presumed descendent/update of the legendary vampire hunter. She joins Chris Egan (Kings) as Oscar Wilde’s hedonistic immortal Dorian Gray, Tom Ellis (Eastenders) as tormented scientists Victor Frankenstein, and Jeffrey Raza (Spooks) as Harker, a dedicated cop under political pressure and presumably another refugee from Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

The show would seem to have a rival in Showtime’s upcoming Penny Dreadful, which not only promises to follow many of the same characters in their original setting of Victorian London, but also has Skyfall director and writer combo, Sam Mendes and John Logan attached.

Gothica will apparently detail Grace Van Helsing’s attempts to run her family newspaper with financial backing from love interest Gray and temptation in the form of previous fling Victor Frankenstein, as she also tries to investigate the murders of her parents, presumably with help from Harker, and all in the eponymous and presumably very shadowy city of Gothica.

Whether audiences will prefer their monsters soapy or straight up, a la League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, remains to be seen.

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Robert Wallis

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