Daybreakers Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It's time for a brief reprieve from the romantic battles between painted-on vampiric pecs and CG fur. As you might know, the Spierig Brothers have whipped up an excellently dark vampiric flick called Daybreakers, which William Goss reviewed last month. The film is gearing up to hit screens on January 8, 2010, and in the midst of all the other vampire chatter out there, Lionsgate has whipped up a rather excellent public service announcement which you can see after the jump.

If you have any questions or concerns about the movie, this PSA should answer them because it's a dead-on representation of the feature. It explains the film while also managing to describe the tone and style of the pic: dark, sleek, modern, and scary with a healthy dose of ridiculousness and comedy mixed in. These things might sound like they clash -- and to be honest, they do a little bit -- but not in any way that ruins the movie.

You know that whoever made this clip had a perfect understanding of the film and could sum everything up with delivery rather than unnecessary exposition. (Yes, there's a voiceover in this, but it's different than saying: "Daybreakers serves chills and laughs.") If only we could get this with all the trailers and marketing that floods our way...

Does the PSA tantalize you into seeing Daybreakers?

[via CHUD]

Ten years from now, 95% of the human population has been transformed into vampires, with those few uninfected survivors evading capture as best they can and those already captured being farmed for every last drop of their blood. However, supplies are dwindling, substitutes aren't working, and vampires who are driven by starvation to feed on one another tend to mutate for the worse.

This is the world of Daybreakers, a more ambitious and straight-faced follow-up than anyone might've expected from the Spierig Brothers in the wake of their cheeky low-budget aliens-and-zombies debut, Undead; better yet, it's a smarter and more refreshing take on the vampire genre than most of late, and a solid action flick in its own right.

Read the rest at Horror Squad!

Key Screenings. And away we go! The Toronto International Film Festival got underway on Thursday, as official opener Creation landed with a painful thud. Reaction was more positive for Lars von Trier's Antichrist (except for the guy who vomited on fellow attendees during the screening) and Pedro Almodovar's Broken Embraces, according to Eugene Hernandez at indieWIRE, who also noted that Paul Bettany, Jennifer Connelly, Willem Dafoe, and Penelope Cruz (plus the lovely Amanda Seyfried, above) appeared in support of their wide-ranging films, not to mention scantily-clad men and women at different functions.

The first full day of screenings found Anne Thompson gushing over the Coen Brothers' A Serious Man ("Utterly assured, personal, serious, sad and very funny"). George Clooney (staring, above) and Jeff Bridges received ovations for The Men Who Stare at Goats, tweeted a Twitter user; however, Karina Longworth recoiled: "Its vacuity actually seems offensive" compared to Lu Chuan's City of Life and Death, dealing with the tragedy in Nanking, China in 1937.

Our Coverage. As our writers on the ground scramble to hit all the choicest press and public screenings, and somehow find time to write in between dashing from one theater to the next, reviews have begun to filter in. Written by Diablo Cody and starring Megan Fox, Jennifer's Body "substitutes hipster credibility for emotional currency," says Todd Gilchrist. Directed by Jason Reitman and starring George Clooney, Up in the Air is "brisk, funny, and not enslaved to genre conventions," declares Eugene Novikov. And Erik Davis presented a TIFF Exclusive: the poster for indie flick Kirot, with Olga Kurylenko as a gun-toting mother / assassin.

News about a deal and more highlights from the Information Superhighway -- after the jump!

If you know your pirates and are a fan of classic cinema, then I'm sure I don't need to tell you about Captain Blood. The 1935 swashbuckling classic starred Errol Flynn as a doctor convicted of treason who escapes to the Caribbean to join forces with a French pirate, and was the role that made Flynn a star. But here we are 74 years later and suddenly the word 'remake' started to come up in conversation over at Warner Bros. That was almost a year ago, but not only is the film still in the works, the story is about to get one hell of a venue change. Variety now reports that Daybreakers duo Michael and Peter Spierig have been hired to direct an update that would transplant the action to outer space.

Back in December, Monika brought us the news that John Brownlow had been hired to pen a faithful remake, but now it looks like Brownlow will be going back to square one with his script. Blood's producer, Bill Gerber, promises that even though there are some changes afoot for the update, "There are some things you don't mess with, and that is as classic a movie storyline as you will ever find."

But here's the big question: Who will be our new Captain Blood? It's a mighty big part to fill; Flynn was a legend of Hollywood and the granddaddy for every bad-boy with a heart of gold to come after him. It's a role that requires charm, action, and a way with the ladies. The project could be a gamble for WB, but I guess as long as it doesn't turn into Ice Pirates 2, things should work out just fine.

After the jump: My suggestions for the new interstellar Captain Blood...

The Box
Richard Kelly didn't exactly set the world on fire with Southland Tales, but his previous film Donnie Darko is one of my favorite movies of all time and I'm hoping this new film is more along those lines. Based on a short story by Richard Matheson, The Box stars Cameron Diaz and James Marsden as a couple whose financial problems can be cleared up quite simply. If they press the button on a mysterious box then they will be given a million dollars but someone they don't know will die. Sounds like a classic Twilight Zone moral dilemma, and Matheson did pen a few episodes of the series. We can find out what's in the box on October 30.

Ponyo
I really like the look of this animated feature since it doesn't look like Disney's typical work (they're releasing it here in the States) and it looks kind of atypical for Japanese anime as well. Hayao Miyazaki, the man behind Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Kiki's Delivery Service and My Neighbor Totoro directs. I'd be more interested if the trailer gave a better idea of what the movie is about -- but Miyazaki's resume speaks for itself. This one gets a limited release on August 14.

Over two years ago, Ethan Hawke decided to change things up and go for some vampiric fare by grabbing Daybreakers -- a vampire movie set in the future, and not exactly his normal genre. Now, finally, Yahoo has the trailer, which you can watch after the jump (or right here).

Hawke plays a researcher in 2019 named Edward Dalton. Some pesky plague has turned most of the world's population into vampires, and humans are at the edge of extinction. But seeing that vamps sort of rely on human blood, they've got to farm the remaining humans to keep up their food source, or find a blood substitute. But it isn't a wasteland of chaos -- the vamps are leaders, cops, you name it. As the supply decreases, a rogue crew finds a way to cure vampirism and possibly save the human race, and they enlist Dalton to help.

The trailer has its goofy moments, and I really don't get Hawke's hat-topped getup, but dare I say: this movie looks fun. It's got the teeth and the usual vampiric snarling, but even better -- it's got a twist that hasn't been overused to the point of insanity. There's no teen romance, no vamp/wolf combo. It even plays on our expectations -- this future isn't a post-apocalyptic wasteland of blood, but one that continues societal structures. And best of all, we've got Willem Dafoe getting creepy again as one of the rogues. That's enough for me. You? The film will hit screens on January 8, 2010.

She isn't too well known in America, but Star Wars fans may recognize Claudia Karvan as the actress who played Padmé's elder sister Sola in Revenge of the Sith. Now the Australian actress, who is a popular television star in her native country, has landed herself another Hollywood role sure to make her more familiar to audiences in the States. She has been cast as the female lead in the futuristic vampire movie Daybreakers, in which she'll co-star with Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe and fellow Aussie (slash New Zealander) Sam Neill. The casting of an up-and-coming Australian star makes perfect sense since the movie will be shot Down Under by Australian filmmakers the Spierig twins (Undead), who also wrote the screenplay.

According to Moviehole, Karvan will be playing a human love interest for Hawke's vampire character. The movie is set in 2017 when the world is mostly populated by vampires, a race that may become extinct once the blood-supplying humans are also extinct. Hawke is some sort of good guy vampire who is researching a way for his people to survive with a blood substitute. Dafoe plays his rival. Still no word on who or what Neill will be playing. If Karvan's part is correct, I think we can assume that once Hawke falls for her, he begins to think twice about feeding on humans. Of course, he could just turn her into a vampire and then live happily for eternity with her, but narratively that idea lacks conflict. Daybreakers begins filming soon and is set to release next year, which will be long after we've already seen I Am Legend, 30 Days of Night and Bloodrayne II. Hopefully we'll still be interested in vampires by that point.

A veteran screenwriter once told me never to write a script about vampires. "People will laugh at you; the vampire genre is dead," he said. Really? Then how come every time I turn around, another vamp flick is gearing up for production? And how much can you really do with vampires that hasn't already been done ... and done ... and done? Well, for one, you can stick them in the future; in a world that's populated by vampires who are running out of real humans to suck dry. We already told you that Ethan Hawke signed up to star in Daybreakers; a futuristic vampire flick set to shoot in Australia. At the time, it was being reported that he wasn't going to play a blood sucker, but instead some sort of research guy. According to Star Pulse, that's changed ... and some new blood has just been added to the cast.

Says Hawke: "I'm going to make a vampire picture and I'm going to chew on some necks. Willem Dafoe and I are dueling vampires. It's a vampire movie set way in the future where everyone is a vampire and we're all eating our own resources, so we're trying to get off on foreign humans. We're trying to get off of trying to create blood substitutes. It's a big analogy about what's going on now. It's really dark and weird and everybody's sucking each other's blood." That sounds ... interesting. I am pretty stoked about Dafoe joining the cast; in my opinion, the guy is already living as a vampire in secret -- and, heck, he's also got a pretty good vampire-related track record having starred in Shadow of the Vampire back in 2000. Hawke, on the other hand, I'm not so sure about. Hopefully he won't break a record for being the most boring vampire of all time. Sam Neill has also been cast in the flick, which was written and will be directed by the Spierig Brothers. A 2008 release is currently planned.

Moviegoers are about to be up to their (succulent) necks in vampire movies. Currently in theaters is non-mainstream vampire fare like the Russian film Day Watch, the very limited release Rise: Blood Hunter and the short film "Quartier de la Madeleine", which is Vincenzo Natali's lame contribution to the otherwise enjoyable compilation Paris Je T'Aime. But on their way to multiplexes near you are the big-deal vampire pics Castlevania, I Am Legend, 30 Days of Night, Daybreakers, Cirque du Freak, Dracula Year Zero, The Un Dead, Hotel Transylvania, Bloodrayne II: Deliverance, Already Dead, Town Creek and Blood: The Last Vampire. And straight to your rental queue is Lost Boys 2: The Tribe. This isn't even counting a lot of the vampire indies being made right now.

Officially added to the pile now is Sony's adaptation of Elizabeth Kostova's novel The Historian. The movie was announced two years ago when the studio paid seven figures for the rights to the book, which hadn't yet hit stores. Finally, long after watching the novel become a bestseller (it was ranked #28 for 2005 by Nielsen BookScan), the studio is finally moving forward with the movie. Sony has hired former child actor (Starship Troopers) and singer ('Aladdin' in Aladdin) Brad Kane to write the script. According to producer Douglas Wick (Hollow Man), who is overseeing the project with his Red Wagon partner Lucy Fisher, it has taken two years to find just the right person to capture the novel's sexiness and its credibility. Kane has been rising as a screenwriter recently, having scripted an upcoming film titled These City Walls and having done rewrites on the Richard Pryor biopic, Live. The plot of The Historian deals with a young woman searching for her father who is in turn searching for the grave of Vlad the Impaler (the inspiration for Dracula).

Is there anything left to say about vampires? The question answers itself, but get ready for a new vampire movie, Daybreakers, starring Ethan Hawke. As we recently told you, Hawke won't actually be playing a vampire in the movie -- he's playing a researcher in the year 2017, when most of the world's population has been turned into vampires by a plague. With the number of human beings rapidly dwindling, the vampires face a problem -- how will they get blood after they've sucked the last person dry? Word comes today via ScreenDaily that Sam Neill has signed on to co-star with Hawke in the film, but frustratingly, they haven't revealed what part he's going to be playing in the film. If he's not the vampire leader, I think we'll all be very surprised and disappointed.

The president of Lionsgate International had this to say about the casting: "Sam Neill is an outstanding actor who brings gravitas to all his roles and we are delighted he is joining Ethan Hawke for this exceptional and visionary project." Gravitas, eh? We'll see about that. Writing and directing duties on this project are being shared by Peter and Michael Spierig, whose most recent film was 2003's Undead, which I haven't seen but sounds like good practice. Finally, the article also notes that the Weta Workshop has been tasked with putting together the effects for the film, which is a big bonus -- those guys know what they are doing. So who knows -- this might be one to look forward to. No word yet on when Daybreakers, but don't expect it to show up anywhere near the Sam Raimi-produced vampire film 30 Days of Night, which has already marked its release-date territory for late fall.