It's been ten years since Melissa George made her mark in her first feature film -- Alex Proyas' cult favorite, Dark City. Since then, she's had some stinkers -- oh, the crap that was Derailed comes to mind -- as well as some worthy roles like the beautifully eerie Camilla Rhodes in Mulholland Drive. But now that she's finished with vampires and 30 Days of Night, The Hollywood Reporter posts that she'll get into a supernatural Triangle.

The thriller is about some people who go on a yachting trip in the Atlantic Ocean. When they're "struck by mysterious weather conditions," they move onto another ship. However, it doesn't seem like this new ship was the life-saving convenience they imagined because they "experience greater havoc on the open seas" on this other vessel. I guess they hop onto a ghost ship or something. Or, maybe modern-day pirates?! Anyway, George will play one of the passengers who has a mental disorder and "relives the harrowing experience through each of her three personalities." I guess she survives, or has died and descended into a mental hell. Christopher Smith, who last brought us the bloody team-building flick Severance, will direct the feature, which shoots this spring in Australia.

If you're excited about the latest psychological thriller, Waz (or WΔZ), then be sure to watch that trailer above (courtesy of TerrorFeed.com). I'm not going to promise that you can see much, though. Really, it has got to be the darkest preview I've ever seen -- and I'm not talking about dark in terms of subject matter. I know my computer is facing a sunny window, and there's probably a good amount of dust on my screen, but still. A scary movie trailer shouldn't only be accessible to horror geeks watching from their black-curtained basement bedrooms. If I hadn't read the synopsis provided by HorrorMovies.ca, I wouldn't have had any idea what was going on. All I would have had to say was, "Stellan Skarsgard sure does look badass with a mustache," and "boy, Melissa George is even more easily confused for Rachel McAdams in the dark."

Now that I've gotten over the seemingly poor quality of the movie (or the trailer, at least), I recall that I was once pretty interested in Waz. Last May, when Ryan wrote about the film being picked up at Cannes by The Weinstein Co., he quoted George from his interview with the actress, and her description made the thing sound very intriguing. She called it a "genius storyline" dealing how humans are more willing to sacrifice a loved one for their own survival than other animals, who are apt to sacrifice themselves for the good of "the kingdom." Yeah, that sounds good, right? Too bad the end result looks more like just another Se7en knock-off. But of course, there is a chance that it is as good as George claims. Variety's Derek Elley called it a "mightily impressive feature debut" from director Tom Shankland and Cinematical horror expert Scott Weinberg wrote on another site that it's "solid" and "one of the best [serial killer flicks] I've seen in awhile." I guess it's just a bad trailer, then?

Ever wondered what it would be like to see every vampire movie ever made, all rolled into one? If so, 30 Days of Night is for you -- it's got a little bit of everything. For Dracula-lovers, there's a hillbilly Renfield, played by everyone's new favorite actor, Ben Foster. His arrival in town at the outset, with a shambling gait and greasy-roadie haircut, foreshadows the arrival of some nameless master who he's bound to displease in some way. The vampires, when they arrive, turn out not to be Hungarian sophisticates, but feral beasts who look like a cross between a cougar and Marilyn Manson. They take their movement cues from The Lost Boys, attacking from out of frame and grabbing their prey up into space or yanking them into a dark corner. Instead of sucking blood, they tear their victims' limbs apart as easily as restaurant rolls. An apparent nod to the Blade series also creeps in, when the vamps begin speaking some erudite, subtitled language and spouting faux-profound aphorisms like "things which can be broken must be broken!"

On top of this heady mishmash of genre staples there's a nifty overarching conceit, taken from the comic on which 30 Days is based -- the location of the carnage is a remote town in Seward's Folly, where the sun doesn't shine for a full month. (Why did it take vampires so long to hear about this place? And mightn' it have been more interesting if all the world's vampires came gunning for this place, instead of a handful? But that's neither here nor there.) The vamps that do descend on the snowy Alaskan hamlet must go head to head with two pretty local cops, played by Josh Hartnett and Melissa George, and one of the best things about 30 Days is that it acknowledges straightaway that the humans are physically no match for the vampires. Those who survive the initial assault must scramble into hiding places to save their necks and what follows is a sort of 'Anne Frank vampire film', with Hartnett and George and a ragtag group holing up in an abandoned attic and waiting for the vamp patrols to move on.

I'm a Melissa George fan, although I think she's sort of wasted in most of the films she does. I'll say no more on that subject, since I'm already addressing it in my upcoming review of 30 Days of Night. Anyhow, the outspoken Aussie is making a small bit of news this morning, having told ComingSoon that, in spite of everything we've heard, Jan de Bont's Stopping Power, which was recently shut down, is completely back on and will begin shooting in March. "It's back on!" George tells the site, with typical breathlessness. "First of March. Three days into filming, we were in Berlin, they cancelled the film. It worked out so good, because I'm busy doing other things, and I could come back to shoot. HBO and I'm going away next Christmas, and then the strike happens next year, so I'm going to go away in March and do this. Look, anything can change, but it's on. It has to be on." That last part sounds like she might be sort of 'willing' the project into life, but still, she does give a solid date.

By the way, when I spoke with 30 Days of Night graphic novelist Steve Niles a couple of months back, he told me of early plans to push forward with a sequel to the film, called Dark Days, if everything went well at the box-office. Dark Days is a project that would be entirely focused around the character played by George -- is Hollywood ready to entrust her with carrying an entire action-horror film on her shoulders? I think it's a safe bet -- this is an actress with a lot of potential who could use a great, high-gloss breakout role like that. Stay tuned to Cinematical for all future info on Stopping Power and Dark Days, should they actually happen!

That last R-rated clip from 30 Days of Night was pretty cool, but wait'll you get a load of this new one. It's definitely more my kind of thing, since I prefer zombies to vampires, and the clip makes the pic look more like a zombie movie. What could be better than Mark Boone Junior driving around in some kind of chainsaw-esque tractor, slicing through multiple baddies while simultaneously blowing away others with a shotgun? Exactly. Nothing could be better. In fact, I think I like this scene better than that sequence in Dawn of the Dead where they're driving the modified bus around. But that partially has to do with my appreciation for Mark Boone Junior. He just looks like the perfect guy to be in charge of a task like this. Anyway, once again you have to prove you're 18 (or otherwise get through the sign-in page) in order to watch the clip. Or you could just wait until Friday when the movie hits theaters.

Cinematical wimp pansy editor-in-chief, Erik Davis, saw the film and loved it, even though he's probably back to sleeping with a night light. He even claims it's the most beautiful horror film he's ever seen. For those still out of the loop, the movie is based on Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith's graphic novel about a small town far up north where the sun disappears for a whole month -- ripe time for a crop of vampires to go on a rampage. Directed by David Slade (Hard Candy), it stars Josh Hartnett, Ben Foster, Melissa George, my favorite supporting actor these days, Danny Huston, and, of course, Mark Boone Junior.

I'm not much of a horror buff myself, but if there is more stuff like this new clip, I'm pretty much sold on going to see it. And though I don't think I've ever needed a night light, I bet I'll have at least one nightmare as a result. It just looks like that kind of movie. At the very least, I'm sure I'd at least get freaked out the next time I'm walking around late at night in the snow. Between 30 Days of Night and the recently released The Last Winter, I'm pretty set never to go up to the arctic circle.

Graphic novelist and screenwriter Steve Niles called into Cinematical headquarters this weekend from the Fangoria Weekend of Horrors Convention in New Jersey. We talked all things 30, from the marketing push that will include a series of short films based on the comics, to the ComicCon plans for the film, to the rating -- it's going to be R, for sure -- to the massive sequel potential that exists, considering how much source material there is. (Niles is already thinking about a Dark Days sequel revolving around Melissa George's character, something even she wasn't thinking about when I spoke with her last November) If you're a movie person who isn't familiar with the 30 Days graphic novels or Niles' work in general, he's a major name in comics, having developed many well-known titles and collaborated with scores of other artists.

I was eager to get a sense from him of what kind of vampire effects we're in store for with the film, but he told me Weta is still keeping that information under strict lock and key. Oh well. In addition to 30 Days, he was also ready to talk up Bigfoot, a straight-up horror movie he's jointly developing with Rob Zombie -- a finished script is out to directors. For those who worry about seeing another Bigfoot story that tries to make the beast a sympathetic humanoid, you'll be glad to know that Niles is steering in exactly the opposite direction. Check out the full interview below.

RS: How goes the convention?

SN: So far, so good. It's really funny because I usually do these things on the West Coast, and I walked into this one and it's like, I pretty much ran into the same people, the same vendors, it's very funny. I got here and it was very familiar.

RS: I heard you're taking 30 Days to ComicCon; you're going to be there in person?

SN: Oh yeah, definitely. I'll be there in person, and I'll be doing stuff at IDW, doing some comic stuff, we've got some new 30 Days comics coming out. Sony's got a big thing -- they're going to have a booth there this year. We're gonna be doing a big panel and showing clips, and we might even be unveiling some 30 Days merchandise, some collectible figures or something like that. I'm still waiting to find out, but all day Saturday is going to be '30 Days crazy.'

RS: So have you seen a cut? Is it still in post?

SN: I saw ... I know there's been one test screening since the one I saw. But I hear that they are really close to locking it. Still waiting for word on if we're going to get any re-shoots or anything like that. But for the most part, what I've seen is the finished film.

RS: How much of your draft survived the Stu Beattie draft and the other one? How much of your scripting work is still in there?

SN: An amazing amount of it is. What I used, especially in my version, I used a lot of dialogue from the comic. And all of it's in there. So a lot of my dialogue, a few of my gags, a few things I came up with -- slaughtering the dogs and all of that stuff -- a few things that were just kind of expanding on the idea of the comic -- it all made it. It's really unbelievable. I'm really happy that the three of us are sharing credit because we all became friends and we all worked together, and we all had the same ... we all wanted to make it as close to the comic as possible.

If you're one of those people who have been itching for more fan-food about 30 Days of Night, this should please you. A ton of pictures have been released for the film -- an appropriate 30 to be exact. Lots of stills action to go through. While it's pretty much a still-by-still account of the great trailer that Scott alerted us to the other day, their resolution is high enough to get a closer look at all of the scenes contained within. There's the usual terror and crying of any horror movie, and of course, an ominous axe. There are good shots of Josh Hartnett and Melissa George (Camilla Rhodes from Mulholland Drive), a Buffy-esque brow-wrinkly Joel Tobeck and an incarcerated, vampiric Ben Foster (Angel from X-3). Don McKellar fans might also recognize Mark Rendall in there -- the kid who played Taylor Brandon Burns in Childstar. Unfortunately, just like the trailer, there's only that little itty bit of Danny Huston's Marlow.

The horror thriller follows an Alaskan town that has to try to defend itself against a horde of vampires said to be the last of their kind. Unfortunately, they're in the middle of 30 days of night, so their wait for the sun to rise is just a wee bit longer -- and the vamps also don't seem to be affected by that whole home invitation thing, which makes things easier. The movie is an adaptation of Steve Niles' 30 Days of Night, a graphic novel that came out in 2003. Perhaps I, along with some others at Cinematical, are being overly optimistic, but this is looking like one great flick. I never really minded Hartnett, and actually like him on occasion, and I don't see how you can go wrong with Foster and Huston as insidious baddies. My only regret: Melissa George would've made a great, mysterious female vamp -- her mysterious look was great in Mulholland.

Last November, when I interviewed Melissa George for the horror film Turistas, we ended up talking about another project on her horizon, the psychological thriller Waz, with Stellan Skarsgard. George said the film had a "genius storyline" but sort of went around the world when describing it, not wanting to be pinned down on an actual plot description. "It's about altruism in nature and whether you'd kill someone you love in order to survive yourself," she said. When pressed, she gave me a monkey analogy. "In nature there are some animals who will put themselves on the front line to be killed in order to save the kingdom, because they are the same gene pool. They don't care. They just want to survive. One monkey will go out in front of another and get killed in order to save 300 of them behind him. You know what I mean? Whereas, humans, we're a separate gene pool." Hmmm ...

Anyway, the trades are reporting that just as the Cannes fest was closing, the Weinsteins made a couple of last-minute deals, and one of them was to pick up North American home video rights to Waz. The film, which is described in the article as "the story of a detective (Skarsgard) stalked by a serial killer," will be released through the Genius home video label, although when hasn't been specified. In addition to Waz, the Weinsteins also picked up North American rights to the Joy Division biopic Control and Australian rights to the animated film Persepolis -- both of the latter were reviewed by our own James at Cannes.

John Stockwell has found considerable success directing fairly dumb but undeniably entertaining movies about ...well, let's face it, about hot girls wearing next to nothing. But did you know he used to be an actor? This was news to me, but the guy's had some pretty major film roles, including a lead part in John Carpenter's Christine and "Cougar" in Top Gun. Stockwell's next directing project will be Middle of Nowhere, "a bittersweet romantic comedy about a clashing mother and daughter." Susan Sarandon will play the mother, Eva Amurri the daughter. Didn't Sarandon already make this movie once? It was called Anywhere but Here with Natalie Portman, and the premise seemed pretty tired back then. And Amurri was in that one too!

According to IMDB, Sarandon has no less than seven projects set for release this year, including Enchanted and the long-delayed Mr. Woodcock. She'll also play "Mom Racer" in next year's Speed Racer. Amurri is probably best known for her role in Saved!, and she'll next appear in The Education of Charlie Banks -- directed by (it pains me to write this) Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst! In Middle of Nowhere Amurri will play Grace, "a young woman whose irresponsible mother blows her college fund on her younger sister's beauty pageant campaign." Stockwell's directorial resume includes Crazy/Beautiful (the touching story of Kirsten Dunst's rack), Blue Crush (the powerful story of Kate Bosworth's rack), Into the Blue (the moving story of Jessica Alba's rack), and Turistas (the thought-provoking story of Melissa George's rack.)

You know the old saying: "It's all over but the shouting?" Well, that almost applies in this case if you replace "shouting" with "shooting" and change the saying to something like: "Its all over but the post-production." However you say it, I've been cautiously optimistic about this film and am even more so now that principal photography (what they call it in the "biz") is over. To what potential horror-classic am I referring? 30 Days of Night, which stars Josh Hartnett and Melissa George, based on the Steve Niles graphic novel.

Over at Ghost House Pictures, one of the production companies for the film, they commemorate the completion of principal photography after seventy days and nights. They're so happy -- giddy, actually, that they've even included a video featuring the cast and crew's mix of emotions as filming concludes. Among those appearing in the video are producer Robert Tapert, who narrates, and a special appearance by one of the most important pieces of the filmmaking process -- the Champan hybrid dolly. Seeing the video and having been on a few sets in my time, I can understand exactly what the cast and crew are going through.

Sure, spending eighteen hours a day six or more days a week for 70 days and nights may sound like fun -- and many times it is. But when its all over, you're left with a mixture of elation at having finished shooting the movie (which in itself is a major accomplishment), sadness at having to say goodbye to the people who've been your de facto family for the last several months and the realization that you're unemployed again and need to start looking for your next gig. Among the range of emotions and feelings you can have when a show wraps, that last one almost always hurts the most. 30 Days of Night is set for release October 19th.