LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Jonathan Rhys Meyers' Dracula has found his arch nemesis. Or, perhaps, his arch nemesis will be finding him.

NBC has cast Thomas Kretschmann ("King Kong," ABC's "The River") to play famed vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing, a spokesman for the network told TheWrap on Monday.

The Van Helsing as envisioned in NBC's version of the Dracula legend is a brilliant professor with a seemingly cool exterior who harbors an obsession with revenge and power that may make him a more dangerous threat to the public than Dracula.

The show has also cast "Mr. Selfridge" actor Oliver Jackson-Cohen to play Jonathan Harker, who's described as a tenacious and slightly gauche journalist desperate to climb the ranks of aristocracy - and stay there.

Based on a script by co-executive producer Cole Haddon, "Dracula" will feature Rhys Meyers ("The Tudors") posing as an American in Victorian London. Seemingly interested in introducing modern science to the area, he's actually motivated by revenge, but is knocked off his vengeful course when he falls for a woman who could be his reincarnated wife.

The project, which has received a 10-episode order, is being produced by Carnival Films & Television ("Downton Abbey"), Flame Ventures and Playground.