david slade Tagged Articles at Cinematical

MTV, an outlet I don't believe has ever covered the Twilight franchise, is reporting that Hard Candy and 30 Days of Night director David Slade has visions of turning Eclipse, the upcoming third film in Stephenie Meyer's paranormal romance series, into a film guys may actually want to bring their dates to. One may assume their source for this speculation should have been as obvious as David Slade's historical track record - revenge-loving jail bait and deformed, snow-covered throat-rippers don't exactly scream PG-13 hugs and cuddles - but their actual informant is Eclipse co-star Ashley Greene:

"The first one was very focused on this love story and really sweet and it was beautiful, but it didn't have a lot of stuff that guys would go, 'Yeah, I want to go see that,' " she said. "There's going to be a lot more focus on [action], and the fight scene will have more emphasis on it. I definitely think it will be a little more guy-friendly."

Now before you doubt how a singular fight scene designates a film more "guy-friendly", keep in mind that Greene is referring to only her character's big showdown, which apparently has left the young actress, who plays Alice Cullen, adopted sister to dreamboat Edward Cullen, bruised from all the stunt training. MTV is quick to point out that the novel culminates in "a climactic battle of vampires and werewolves", which certainly sounds like something basic enough to attract a tree-chopping, tobacco-chewing, barrel-chested king of men like me... until I remember that we're talking about a franchise that makes that which normally bursts into horrific flames sparkle like an '80s be-dazzler in sunlight.

Has there ever been an easier target for a quick joke than the vamp phenomenon known as Twilight? Probably not, but what do you do when one of the people taking shots is the director? Over at /Film, Brendon Connelly dug up an old interview with David Slade (the newly crowned director of the third installment of the franchise, Eclipse) which addressed the likelihood of seeing the film, saying, "Twilight drunk? No, not even drunk. Twilight on acid? No, not even on acid? Twilight at gun point? Just shoot me."

So, as you can imagine, fans weren't pleased that the man in charge of the third installment in their beloved franchise found a bullet to the head preferable to spending two hours with Edward and Bella. Slade has since gone into damage control mode (probably to avoid the possibility of being attacked by glittering teens wherever he goes) and in an email to the Twilight Lexicon fan board Slade clarified that his earlier remarks were all in good fun, and that "... I have since seen the movie and read the books and was quickly consumed with the rich storytelling and the beautifully honest characters that Stephenie Meyer created. I would like to reassure everyone involved that I am invested in making the best film that I am humanly capable of, and that I am acutely aware of the power of the original books we serve."

After the jump: the downside of fandom and why there's still hope for the franchise...

This just in: David Slade (30 Days of Night, Hard Candy) will be directing the third film in the Twilight Saga: Eclipse. Might not be the first guy to pop in your head, but he's obviously capable of delivering believable vampires (and Josh Hartnett as someone you want to root for in a film -- big points for that) while upping the tension, and he's definitely the kind of guy who could bring more male moviegoers to the franchise. Sh*t, I kinda want to see the film now.

Nikki Finke reported the Slade talks earlier today, and a press release announcing his hiring was released shortly thereafter. Eclipse is currently scheduled to hit theaters on June 30, 2010, right smack in the middle of summer blockbuster alley. Will this film rule the summer of 2010 and outshine Iron Man 2? Shocking, perhaps, but these look to be the top contenders.

What do you think of Slade directing Eclipse? Good choice? Bad one? Check out the press release below.

Summit Entertainment announced today that David Slade has been hired to direct THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE from a screenplay written by Melissa Rosenberg. THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE, the third film in the studio's TWILIGHT film franchise based on the Stephenie Meyer's blockbuster book series, will be released theatrically in North America on Wednesday, June 30, 2010. The announcement was made by Erik Feig, Summit's President of Production.

Meyer stated, "I am thrilled that David Slade will be directing ECLIPSE. He's a visionary filmmaker who has so much to offer this franchise. From the beginning, we've been blessed with wonderful directorial talent for the Twilight Saga, and I'm so happy that ECLIPSE will be carrying on with that tradition."

From Troma to indie superheroes to to cartoon adaptations to big-time monster-fests, James Gunn is a filmmaker I like to keep an eye on from time to time. I find his Slither to be a supremely entertaining mixture of comedy and horror, his The Specials a very funny little comedy (at least a whole lot funnier than the similar Mystery Men), and his Tromeo & Juliet the finest thing ever produced by Lloyd Kaufman's Troma team. And while director Zack Snyder did a great job on the Dawn of the Dead remake, let's not forget who penned the adaptation: Gunn did it. Basically, if I had the skills required to write and direct movies, they'd probably look a lot like James Gunn's flicks -- only with more nudity. (Oh, and check out LolliLove some time. Funny little film.)

So when we got a late call during Comic-Con asking us if we'd like to do a brief sit-down with Jimmy Gunn, I said "Heck, yeah. That guy's a nut." (That was literally what I said. Ask Erik.) And since I'd actually met James once before, it was much more laid-back than your typical interview. James Gunn is sort of like a grown-up child, which I mean as a compliment, and that always makes an interview a bit more entertaining. Plus he has great taste in schlock.

Say what you want about Tarsem Singh, but you can't deny the man has a way with art direction. If you don't believe me, take a look at the trailer over at IGN for Singh's fantasy film, The Fall. Dan Gilroy's story focuses on a young girl in a hospital who befriends an American actor. The tales he tells her to pass the hours begin to bleed into the real world and suddenly everyone around her becomes part of the story. Lee Pace *(Friday Night Lights) stars as the storytelling actor, and Catinca Untaru as his captive audience. The trailer might not explain much about the film, but it now carries the seal of approval from respected directors David Fincher and Spike Jonze in the form of a 'so and so presents'. You never know, maybe it was their combined star power that helped get the film a deal with Roadside Attractions.

Unfortunately for Singh, his film career has been filled with very few ups and plenty of downs. Despite his success with music videos, critical response to his debut film, The Cell, wasn't exactly encouraging. As of late, it hasn't gotten much better for the director, and he was recently replaced by David Slade (30 Days of Night) as director on the thriller Unthinkable. The Fall is proving to be no exception to Singh's track record in Hollywood. The film was completed back in 2006, and only a few people got the chance to actually see it when it premiered at TIFF. Hopefully putting Fincher and Jonze's name on the marketing is going to help draw an audience. The Fall is expected to go into limited release in March.

*Correction: Pace stars in Pushing Daisies

According to Variety, David Slade will now direct Unthinkable, the story of a nuclear bomb in the United States. Tarsem Singh, director of the visually spectacular but dramatically weak 2000 thriller The Cell, was originally attached to direct (we brought you that announcement over a year ago). He has moved on, and no reason is given, but I'm sure it's something along the lines of "creative differences." Peter Woodward (Closing the Ring) penned the script, and Oren Moverman (co-writer of I'm Not There) is now listed as a co-writer.

Unthinkable centers on "investigators who push the limits of interrogation as they seek a suspect's knowledge of an impending nuclear attack on the United States." The film is budgeted at $15 million, so it will likely be a pretty small affair. No casting announcements have been made at this time. Slade made his feature debut with Hard Candy. That sharp, entertaining 2005 thriller starred a pre-Juno Ellen Page as a young girl who turns the tables on a pedophile. He followed that with 30 Days of Night -- last year's vampire flick that was chock full of beautiful camerawork...but not much else. Slade is definitely a director to watch though, and I'm excited to see what he'll bring to this project. Miss this one? Unthinkable! Damn, I'm good.

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.

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.

It was almost a year ago when Jette brought us a first look at some of the behind-the-scenes for the big-screen version of 30 Days of Night. Since then, there have been teaser posters, fancy websites, the promise of new short films, and the R rated trailer released in August ( who could forget, of course, the image of Josh Hartnett hacking at a child with an ax -- something like that tends to stay with you). Shock Til You Drop is now hosting three new posters for the vampire flick. Fans of the graphic novels have been pretty eager to see what Ghost House and director David Slade (Hard Candy) have planned for the story of a group of vampires descending on a small town in the wilds of Alaska for a 30-day feeding frenzy.

Based on the graphic novel by Steve Niles, Night stars Josh Hartnett as the local sheriff and Melissa George as his wife -- it's up to both to save their town before the vampires wipe it clean. Ben Foster (3:10 to Yuma) also stars as "the harbinger of the vampires. Well really a scout who was sent into the town because he can be out during the day. He is tentatively known as a "bug-eater", not a vampire but something akin to a ghoul. They find him snooping around town and trespassing so they arrest him" -- at least according to the message boards at IMDB, and since I haven't read the original graphic novels, I'm just going to have to take their word for it. 30 Days of Night is set for release on October 19.

[via Solace in Cinema]

By the looks of the new site for the vampire flick 30 Days of Night, this movie is going to be one nicely designed bloodbath. Sony just launched the fancy flash site for the film version of Steven Niles' graphic novel about a group of vampires descending on a small Alaskan town for a non-stop feeding frenzy.

Night is directed by David Slade (Hard Candy) and the script was written by Stuart Beattie (3:10 To Yuma). Josh Hartnett stars as a local sheriff trying to keep a group of locals alive, and Ben Foster (who gave us a behind the scenes look at the film, last February) is an ancient vampire that is none-too-pleased with the attention-drawing antics of his kind. The site looks like it was designed in the spirit of the original graphic novel, plus, along with the teaser clips and downloads, there is the promise of a nifty-looking shooter game.

There has already been talk of shorts set in the Night universe produced by Sam Raimi's Ghosthouse, more comic books, and don't forget the possibility of multiple sequels (Ryan got the chance to speak with Niles about the film, as well as female lead Melissa George). So, combined with the solid teaser trailer Scott told us about last month, it's looking like this graphic novel has the potential to spawn a whole new horror franchise. The film is also expected to get a little extra buzz with the cast, along with Slade and Raimi, answering questions about the film for a ComicCon panel this weekend -- stay tuned for that report. 30 Days of Night hits theaters October 19th.