For centuries, vampires have stayed in the dark, forced to hide each morning or
else be destroyed by the burning power of the sun. But in Columbia Pictures'
30 Days of Night, based on the groundbreaking graphic novel, that's all
about to change. Not your parents' vampires, these are eating machines, built
for one purpose -- to devour human beings -- and only daylight can stop them...
which is why they target the remote, isolated town of Barrow, Alaska, which each
winter is plunged into a state of complete darkness that lasts 30 days. The
cunning, bloodthirsty vampires, relishing in a month of free rein, are set to
take advantage, feeding on the helpless residents. It is up to Sheriff Eben
(Josh Hartnett), his estranged wife, Stella (Melissa George), and an
ever-shrinking group of survivors to do anything and everything they can to last
until daylight.
ABOUT THE FILM
30 Days of
Night began its journey to theaters
with the publication of the graphic novel by Steve Niles and Ben
Templesmith. The miniseries – just three
books – became a career-defining moment for both. As they brought both a new look and a new
story to the vampire legend, Niles’
and Templesmith’s work has been lauded as a revival of the horror comic.
“We fell in love with the idea of vampires coming to
Barrow, Alaska, once the sun has set for a month,” says producer Rob Tapert,
who – with producer Sam Raimi – founded Ghost House Productions to bring this
kind of story to the screen. “It was a
project that got us excited because it delivers a level of intensity and
stylized horror that, as a young guy, I loved in these kinds of movies and to
this day I still enjoy. For Sam and me, 30 Days of Night is a return to our Evil Dead roots.”
To direct, Raimi and Tapert tapped David Slade, whose
first film, the independent Hard Candy,
impressed them. “David has a style and way of working unique unto him,” Tapert
says. “He has a very specific idea of
what he wants and how he wants everything to be and then he finds a way to work
this out with the actors. He is a
believer in lots of tight shots, close-ups with attention to details, which
frenetically ramp up his movie.”
The director says that long before getting involved
with 30 Days of Night, he had bought the first edition of the graphic
novel. “I love Ben Templesmith’s artwork
– especially the image of Eben looking out and seeing the vampires for the
first time,” he says. “After I directed
my first film, I had a meeting in which an executive at Columbia Pictures
mentioned that they owned the property.
I said, ‘Hang on a minute. I
would chew off my arm to do that!’”
The graphic novel is credited with reinvigorating the
vampire genre. Though the creature dates
back to Lord Byron in Western literature – and is many centuries older in other
cultures – the vampire had, in Niles’
and Templesmith’s opinions, lost its horror.
The authors saw 30 Days of Night
as an opportunity to steer the genre back to its roots and away from the
gothic, affected vampires that had taken over their favorite monsters. “One of the things
Ben and I really wanted to do was make vampires scary again,” says Niles. “We’ve seen vampires made into Count
Chocula. Teenage girls are dating
them. These should be feral vampires
that see humans as nothing more than something to feed on. And Ben took that ten steps further with the
look of the book.”
“I was going for pure savagery, with just a hint of
alien,” says Templesmith. “The classic
image of the vampire is the goth, romantic ponce. I wanted eating machines.”
One of the filmmakers’ top goals was to bring the
source material’s striking imagery to life.
“I wanted the look of the film to be very close to Ben Templesmith’s
artwork, which I very much liked,” Slade says.
Templesmith says that the filmmakers achieved that
vision. “Within reason, they’ve taken
the look of the movie from the page. The
color’s stripped back, the vampires look like the vampires in the book – the
integrity is there.”
“David and his team have really captured the stylized
texture and feel of the graphic novel,” Tapert adds. “Combining Ben’s artwork with a live action
style has given this movie a look all its own.”
Part of that integrity is presenting vampires that
look almost – almost – human. Though the makeup effects team does rely on
some prosthetics, it’s kept to a minimum.
“I just wanted to tweak our vampires’ faces so that they look a little
less human but still completely real,” says Slade. “They’re human enough to recognize them, but
they’re not like you and me.”
To bring that vision to life, the filmmakers turned
to artists from New Zealand’s
Weta Workshop, who had previously brought The
Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia to the screen in
Oscar®-winning fashion. “We definitely wanted
to be faithful to Ben's artwork from the graphic novel, but we also wanted to
create a new Nosferatu, a shocking original design for this generation of
vampire lovers,” says Tapert. “David
Slade worked with Gino Acevedo from Weta and a conceptual artist, Aaron Sims,
to create the final look. David worked
with Aaron here in LA on some designs. Gino then took those two-dimensional
sketches and brought them to life in 3-D. Gino and his team of technicians
handled the molding, making, coloring, and application of all the prosthetics.
They did an incredible job of maintaining the aesthetic David and I had hoped
for with the vampires. “
When
these new vampires are on the screen, Slade says, one thing will make 30 Days of Night stand out: “Lots of
red.”
