'30 Days of Night' Sequel Going Straight to DVD ... Probably

by Jessica Barnes Apr 27th 2009 // 3:32PM

Filed under: Horror, Sony, Scripts, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels

There's nothing quite like the phrase 'straight to DVD' to kill a film's chance of a little dignity, is there? The first thing that usually crosses my mind is, "It must be pretty bad if they aren't even willing to put it up on the big screen" -- which might be a tad unfair of me, but no one ever said gut reactions were fair. Hopefully this time I'll be proven wrong, because in a conversation with MTV Steve Niles (co-creator of the original graphic novel, 30 Days of Night) confirmed that a sequel to the 2007 vampire flick was already in the works, and that it would most likely be going direct to DVD.

According to Niles, a script has already been submitted, and he is hard at work on the project with Ben Ketai (director of the 30 Days webisodes). The sequel will be based on the comic book follow-up Dark Days, and the story centers on "the character of Stella Olemaun [who] heads to Los Angeles after surviving the vampire attack in Barrow, Alaska. She intentionally attracts the attention of the local vampire population in order to avenge the death of her husband, Eben, during the Barrow incident."

After the jump find out how Sam Raimi got involved and the possibility of a 30 Days franchise...

So what was the reason for the DVD decision? According to Niles, it all came down to money; he notes, "We didn't hit that magic $100 million." But, Niles has come around to the DVD idea since a good fairy by the name of Sam Raimi convinced him the DVD strategy wasn't all doom and gloom. According to Niles, "[Raimi] called me and just said, 'Don't be too quick to judge this direct-to-DVD market, especially with the sci-fi market." Which I guess was enough to convince Niles that there might be an upside to selling straight to the fans; namely, the possibility of even more 30 Days of Night films in the near future. Niles told MTV that a direct to DVD strategy meant, "...we'd be able to do all the comics, we won't have the massive competition of the box office, and theoretically, we could move on to 'Return to Barrow' and to the other series and short stories."

Good news if you're a fan of the original books, though I can't help but wonder if quantity over quality is really the way to go -- how about you?

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