I hated Coppola's Dracula. Everything up to the point where Dracula opens the door to his castle is fine, barring Keanu Reeves. After that, it goes straight to hell. The sappy romance(as I've said, romance lies within the human characters, not with Dracula.), Dracula's huge hair and really silly costume, Van Helsing being a crackpot loony, the wolf-rape thing...ugh. The list never ends. My problem lies with the fact that the guy who wrote it, James V. Hart, just assumed that because Dracula was hundreds of years old, he must be lonely and that's why there's romance. No. Dracula isn't lonely. He's an evil vicious bastard. He does what he does not because he's cursed to do so, or has a broken heart, but simply because he can and he enjoys doing it. I think the film really missed the point of the novel by switching it around like that.
Dracula 2000 was interesting. The Judas Iscariot thing was especially fascinating. The day we get a faithful adaptation of the book on the big screen is the day I die a happy man(after seeing it at least 5 times first).
I could have sworn the article said the middle section of the film, but I may be mistaken. Regardless, I do agree, that even if it isn't amazing, it'll still be good and better than most.
Long films I have no problems with. It's really subjective though if a film is long. I thought Watchmen, after sitting in the theater, should have been LONGER. The ultimate cut of the film is great. The Lord of The Rings films caused me some unrest as well. I only went to see them for Christopher Lee, and I'm sure you can imagine the rage I felt upon, after being coerced into seeing the third film, seeing NO CHRISTOPHER LEE!

But it'll just seem like wasted opportunity to release a mediocre 80 minute film, just to release a 120 minute extended DVD that sells like hotcakes.
Back to Crossovers. I don't know. I was thinking about this last night and came to the conclusion that there's gonna be an underlying sense of camp regardless of how they make it. It also comes down to how they handle Dracula and Frankenstein. If they adapt the novels, they're gonna have to pull some major creativity to make it work. Dracula in the book is an uber-powerful horrible, intelligent being and Frankenstein's Monster is an uber-powerful misunderstood being who is very intelligent. The monster won't fall for that "I Wanna be your friend" crap. But speaking of which, back in the 40's, Universal toyed around with making a Wolfman vs Dracula film as the first sequel to "The Wolfman". It was to be shot in technicolor and Universal considered Lugosi for Dracula again. I'm hazy on plot details, but Dracula was supposed to fight as a giant bat monster. They didn't really know how to pull it off so they scrapped it and made Arabian Nights instead. For those interested,
www.bearmaniamedia.com is releasing a series of script books by Philip J. Riley about the abandoned Universal horror films. They're being released in the same format as Riley's other books about the produced Universal Horror films which are out of print and hard to find(but so very worth every penny. I have Dracula and Frankenstein. Both are fascinating to read.) You get the script, lots of pictures and information about what was going on during the development and production stages.
Bear Manor Media has currently released the book for "Dracula's Daughter" had James Whale directed it using the script he and Bride of Frankenstein co-writer R.C. Sheriff had written. They've also just released the book for "Cogliostro" which was intended to be a vehicle for Karloff that later evolved into "The Mummy". Next year, in January I think, they're releasing the "Wolfman vs Dracula". After that, from what I understand, they intend to release what was originally going to be "Werewolf of London" with Lugosi and Karloff considered for the role for Dr. Landon that went to Henry Hull(i HOPE HOPE HOPE that it includes the treatment for a wolfman movie that Robert Florey wrote in the mid-30's that was eventually scrapped in favor for Curt Siodmack's story that we all know). Also coming I think will be the first script treatment/script for Dracula that was much more faithful to the book and written for Lon Chaney Sr. All cool stuff. Be sure to check them out if you can and try to track down all of Philip J. Riley's other Universal Horror books he did for MagicImage. It's worth it.
as for Guillermo Del Toro, I want At The Mountains of Madness to be the first thing he tackles after The Hobbit. Then Hellboy 3. After that, he can do whatever the hell he wants.