The 30 Days of Night sequel
I’m a bit late to the panel as I had to come across SDCC to get here. Much of the cast minus Mia Kirshner and Harold Perrineau are on the panel along with the writer/director Ben Ketal and writer Steve Niles.
Luckily, I didn’t miss much. They show the trailer to Dark Days just as I get in and it looks pretty cool. Lots of vampires. Lots of big, tough characters and so on. How well it will carry to entire film is another story. Overall not too shabby.
They then take Facebook questions? What the hell? The room is standing room only, although there are plenty of seats, and you are taking Facebook questions?
Someone on Facebook asks about the language of the vampires and the creators call it an ancient tongue that has been crafted throughout the centuries.
The host asks for someone on the panel to make the scream of the vampires and they all scoff at the idea saying they’d pass out.
Kiele Sanchez is in this film taking over as Stella. Anyone remember her as Nikki from Lost? Yeah, worst character ever.
Luckily, she redeemed herself in A Perfect Getaway and looks to continue to make amends with this film.
They try and show a clip from the film but the sound is FUBARed so they try again. And again. No luck. And again. No luck. Pausing to figure it out the crew and cast are not happy.
They take questions in the meantime and someone asks when part three will come out. They say it will depend on the fan response to part two. But they have plenty of material with the graphic novels for a part three so if it happens they won’t have trouble finding material.
Someone asks about the difference between this film and the original and the response is this is more of an action horror film rather than the original which was more visceral and confined. Interesting, as they told me earlier this was about scary vampires not action horror. But we’ll see what happens.
Sanchez says she almost got the character of Stella the first time around so she read the graphic novel already. She says she has many friends that are huge fans of the graphic novel and they told her “not to ‘f’ it up.”
Diora Baird was drawn to the film because these were “vampires minus the glitter. These vampires are not sexy or hot. You see these vampires you want to run.”
They try the clip again and it works … sorta. Good enough for government work. The scene is dark, wicked dark with only a handful of glowlights and weapons fire for any light. Lots of gunfire. I keep expecting Sly Stallone to come out. The compared it to Aliens earlier and I can see it now, nearly right down to the soundtrack. Copyright infringement? Anyway, it is a pretty cool scene and I’m a bit more hopeful for the film.
Some dude asks about if Sanchez or Baird feel as if they have been objectified in horror films. Both say not in this film, but Baird felt a bit in Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Baird actually goes on to say that chicks are kick ass in this film and she wants to do it again.
Sanchez said that the actors that were nameless vampires seemed to be almost too into the part and the rest of the cast kept their distance. They seemed to take it very seriously and when the makeup came on, they became a different person. Baird and Sanchez both said they had to warn a female vampire that they were acting and that she didn’t need to hurt them. Baird went so far as to tell the chick “this is not real.” Funny stuff.
How do they cast their vampires? Ketai says they actually had people audition to be a vampire for the larger roles. For the smaller roles, the extras casting director brought 100 people and lined them up and each one tried to come up and scare him. The best then got a role in the film as a nameless, extra vampire.
Which does Sanchez like better – film or TV? She likes both (shocking) and gives her reasons why – TV you get to connect more with a character but with movies you get a finite period and a more gypsy lifestyle that she is also fond of.
An uber Sanchez fan asks for her name card and she gives it to him even though it is misspelled. And that’s how the panel ends.
Source: Peter Brown
