VampireNewsBeat.com

Posts Tagged ‘vampire movie’

Another vampire film is on the way! Yay! Dimension Films recently announced that they are planning on bringing more vampires to the big screen with their upcoming movie Garden District. That’s right, vampires are coming back to New Orleans. Check out the details below!

From the Press Release:

"Dimension Films announced that it has acquired the rights to the vampire thriller GARDEN DISTRICT written by Anthony Jaswinski (VANISHING ON 7TH STREET) and Luke Goltz (YOU AND I).

In the film, after a mysterious video of a vampire’s execution goes viral, a trio of young, ambitious myth-debunkers head to New Orleans to find out if the video was real or fake. They soon find themselves up against dark forces and in over their heads.

“This film reminds me of the early days of Dimension,” said Bob Weinstein, co-chairman of The Weinstein Company. “We look forward to making GARDEN DISTRICT as terrifying in theaters as it is on the page.”

GARDEN DISTRICT will be produced by David Kirschner and Corey Sienega. Overseeing for Dimension Films are SVP of Production and Creative Affairs, Matthew Signer and VP of Production and Development, Keith Levine."

It sounds like we have a new vampire horror on the way! This isn’t the first time Dimension Films has brought us a vampire flick, they are the folks behind many vampire movies – like Dracula 2000, Dracula II: Ascension, Dracula III: Legacy, From Dusk till Dawn and on and on. Ok, not the best vampire movies, but maybe they have gotten better with practice.

While the unrevealing plot description for Garden District doesn’t really get me all excited, I am happy about another vampire film based in New Orleans. It’s the perfect location for an eerie vampire movie.

What are your thoughts on the upcoming Garden District? Are you looking forward to a new vampire horror?

- Moonlight

Related posts:

1. LGBT Vampire Film Suprises at Film Festival
2. New ‘Blood: The Last Vampire’ Project in the Works
3. Major Works in Vampire Literature Published in 1800s

Over the past few years vampires have been dominating the box office, we have seen everything from vampire romances to vampire horror. But one thing we haven’t seen during this vampire craze are films on real vampires and the vampire subculture. That’s all about to change with the upcoming Sanguinarian film Bloodloss.

It has been reported that management-production companies Caliber Media Co. and Benderspink have teamed with Simplicity Media to launch an experimental feature film and social media project titled Bloodloss. The concept of Bloodloss is to stage a full-scale production within the modern-day subculture of Sanguinarian vampires, a "close-knit" community of individuals who drink human blood to maintain physical health. The film will be a series of pseudo-documentary scenes using a combination of actors and true participants in this lifestyle (both human vampires and their blood donors) shot in real vampire-fetish nightclubs. A social media campaign of status updates, blog entries, and video posts will allow viewers to receive daily updates on Bloodloss, while being directly engaged with each character and their experience in the world of real vampires.

As of now, there is no cast for Bloodloss, but casting is currently under way, and a director will be set shortly.

Writer Jason Dolan conceived the current version of the project with the producers and did a page-one rewrite to the original script by Jeffery Potts. Bloodloss focuses on "a documentary television producer as she investigates her sister’s sudden disappearance into an underground culture of self-proclaimed vampires in Los Angeles. As she discovers how these people actually live, their world of sex and drugs is beyond any addiction she has ever experienced."

Ok, this entire project leaves me with a lot of questions. Are the making up a story about real vampires or are they actually doing a film about what real vampires are? It kind of sounds like a combination of both – fact and fiction combined.

All I can say without a doubt is that the real vampire community won’t be pleased about a movie that makes them look like blood-obsessed drug and sex addicts.

What are your thoughts on the upcoming Bloodloss?

- Moonlight

Related posts:

1. Upcoming Vampire Film ‘Vampires on a Plane!’
2. Are Sanguinarian Vampires in Danger of Extinction?
3. Upcoming Vampire Book Printed With Real Blood

The first trailer for the animated comedy Hotel Transylvania was just released! Finally! Starring Adam Sandler as Dracula, this family friendly story focuses on Dracula, who works as a hotel manager of a luxury hotel for monsters who want to "rest in peace."

Official plot synopsis:

"Welcome to the Hotel Transylvania, Dracula's lavish five-stake resort, where monsters and their families can live it up, free from meddling from the human world. But here's a little known fact about Dracula: he is not only the Prince of Darkness; he is also a dad. Over-protective of his teenage daughter, Mavis, Dracula fabricates tales of elaborate dangers to dissuade her adventurous spirit. As a haven for Mavis, he opens the Hotel Transylvania, where his daughter and some of the world's most famous monsters – Frankenstein and his bride, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, a family of werewolves, and more – can kick back in safety and peace. For Drac, catering to all of these legendary monsters is no problem – but his world could come crashing down when one ordinary guy stumbles on the hotel and takes a shine to Mavis."

Check out the first trailer below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I am so excited! It looks like such a cute movie.

Also part of the cast: Selena Gomez will play Dracula’s daughter Mavis. Kevin James will play Frank – also known as Frankenstein – with Fran Drescher voicing Eunice, his in-your-face, over-the-top, and larger-than-life Bride. David Spade plays Quasimodo, once the hunchback of Notre Dame and now a crazy, passionate gourmet chef always looking for his next piece de resistance. Steve Buscemi and Molly Shannon will play Wayne and Wanda, a pair of married, harried werewolves, parents to an ever-increasing litter of pups, who are looking forward to their family vacation at the hotel. Cee Lo Green is also joining the cast as Murray, a boisterous Mummy, once entertainer to the great Pharaohs, now the life of the party, and always feeling the urge to let loose and sing. Finally, Andy Samberg will voice the role of Jonathan, a 21-year-old regular guy, carefree and full of life, whose world travels land him at the Hotel.

Hotel Transylvania is now set for a September 21 theater release (the date changed yet again).

What are your thoughts on the first Hotel Transylvania trailer?

- Moonlight

Related posts:

1. First Look at Miley Cyrus as a Vampire in ‘Hotel Transylvania’
2. Sneak Peek Photos of Adam Sandler’s ‘Hotel Transylvania’
3. The First Official ‘Underworld: Awakening’ Trailer is Released!

Yes, you read that title correctly Dear Readers. It has been widely reported that an Embrace of the Vampire remake is in the works courtesy of CineTel Films, and honestly I can’t help but think "WTF?! Why?" This old 90s flick is pretty well known and it’s not because of superb acting or a riveting plot, it’s because Alyssa Milano is naked for a good chunk of the film. That is its only claim to fame – frequent nudity.

The 1995 original  best remembered for the pre-Charmed Alyssa Milano and her totally bare breasts as Charlotte, a wholesome Catholic schoolgirl whose virginity is threatened by the emergence of a vampire (Martin Kemp) who believes her to be the reincarnation of his long-dead love. The vampire will only be able to retain his powers of eternal life if he can seduce Charlotte before she turns 18 – which only gives him three days. To weaken Charlotte's resolve, the vampire sends her naughty dreams and also arranges for Sarah (Charlotte Lewis) to introduce her to the pleasures of lesbianism.

Yeah, it’s not the most brilliant of plots. I really wonder why CineTel Films is remaking Embrace of the Vampire. But then they are the same folks that remade I Spit on Your Grave, so maybe they just like remaking bad old movies into even worse movies.

So far there isn’t any other news on this project beyond the concept art pictured on the right and the following brief synopsis, which sounds almost identical to the original: "Charlotte is a timid and sheltered girl trying to forget her past. But she’ll soon discover that her future and her past are forever linked to a dark and dangerous truth." Sounds like the same movie to me. All CineTel needs now is a hot young actress to strip down and participate in some naughty girl on girl action and we’ll have the same exact movie.

What are your thoughts on this Embrace of the Vampire remake? Are you excited about a new sexy vampire movie? Or do you think that this old film should have stayed forever buried?

- Moonlight

Related posts:

1. The Vampire from the Being Human Remake… Meh?
2. ‘Dance of the Damned’ Remake on the Way
3. Eddie Izzard Lands Vampire Role in The Munsters Remake

After a fantastic run in theaters, Underworld: Awakening is finally coming to DVD, Blu-ray and 3D Blu-ray on April 24! The fourth and most successful of the Underworld franchise (grossing over $150 million worldwide) reignited everyone's love for the world of vampires, lycans and sexy women in leather body suits. Along with watching all of the kickass vampire on lycan on human action again, fans also get a movie packed full of awesome bonus features. Check out the details below!

"UNDERWORLD AWAKENING brings a stunning new dimension to the epic battle between Vampires and Lycans, as the first film in the franchise to shoot in 3D. 

Kate Beckinsale, star of the first two films, returns in her lead role as the vampire warrioress Selene, who escapes imprisonment to find herself in a world where humans have discovered the existence of both Vampire and Lycan clans, and are conducting an all-out war to eradicate both immortal species."

Unfortunately, the DVD version of Underworld: Awakening will only come with the filmmakers' commentary and no other special features. Booo! But the Blu-ray, however, comes packed full of awesome. Check them out below:

•     Cracking the Underworld: Picture-in-Picture Experience
•     Filmmakers' Commentary
•     Selene Rises
•     Casting the Future of Underworld
•     Resuming the Action
•     Building a Better Lycan
•     Awakening a Franchise, Building a Brutal New World
•     Blooper Reel
•     "Heavy Prey" Music Video by Lacey Sturm feat. Geno Lenardo

I really hate when they give the DVD nothing and the Blu-ray everything! Ah well, either way, those are some spectacular bonus features, they definitely make the Blu-ray price worth it.

I'm pretty excited about this badass vampire flick finally coming out on DVD. Sadly, I wasn't able to watch it in theaters. Poor me. I have been dying to give it a watch since I absolutely love Underworld. Finally, on April 24, I can see the film I have been so excited about!

Who else is picking up a copy of Underworld: Awakening?

- Moonlight

Related posts:

1. ‘Fright Night’ Coming Soon to DVD and Blu-ray
2. ‘Let Me In’ Coming Soon To DVD and Blu-Ray
3. BBC’s ‘Being Human’ Season 3 Coming Soon to DVD & Blu-ray

This film will go into limited release April 20, but in the meantime is available SundanceNOW, Cable VOD, Amazon Streaming, iTunes and XBox ZUNE.

The Moth Diaries debuted at the Venice Film Festival last year to lukewarm reviews, an adaptation of Rachel Klein's debut novel.  Given how highly that novel stands in my eyes, my expectations were perhaps too specific.  On the other hand, that remains a habit I seek to break.  For those who don't know, the film centers on a Rebecca (Sarah Bolger) a 16-year-old student at a boarding school in Canada.  Two year earlier, her father committed suicide and she still struggles to deal with that trauma.  Returning to a new year at school, she gleefully re-unites with her best friend Lucie (Sarah Gadon).  But across the hall a new student moves in.  Ernessa (Lily Cole) is tall, thin, intense and mysterious.  She meets Rebecca at a time when Lucie has just emerged from one of those huge bathtubs with claw legs in the bathroom the girls share.  Lucie wears nothing but a huge white bath towel, almost a bath blanket.  Ernessa notices.  She notices everything.

As the school year progresses, Ernessa and Lucie grow close while Rebecca finds herself awash with jealousy.  She notes odd details about her rival, including how the young woman never seems to eat.   About this time in her gothic literature class she begins reading Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu.  Her reaction echoes things from her own life.   Slowly, as Lucie grows weaker and weaker, and as other tiny details add up, Rebecca comes to suspect Ernessa is in fact a vampire.

Let me make something clear.  The novel rambles on quite a bit, in a way that works on a printed page but would make for a serious problem when translated to a screen.  Make no mistake the screenplay does much to rectify this, and the overall film highlights rather neatly some of the more difficult-to-fathom details (like the title).  Other bits are made more visual and some additions generally improve the forward nature of a film.   Also, the cast give uniformly excellent performances.

I have three major criticisms of the film.

First, about the theme.  The book recounts a terrible crisis in a young woman's life in which she suffers a nervous breakdown.  But the film re-imagines it as this same girl finding an enormous personal strength in the wake of tragedy, saving herself and eventually others.   Having seen interview after interview with the actors who refer to the story's ambiguity, I must wonder what they're talking about?  Klein's novel seethes with ambiguity, so much so that at its end we don't really know if Ernessa really was a vampire or not.  Some readers walk away not entirely convinced the girl even exists!  Not so here!  We know Ernessa is undead.  Rebecca (unnamed in the novel) may have gone through hard times but she certainly doesn't need hospitalization.  She's quite sane, very much in control.  We feel no sense she may be wrong.  True, this film captures an enormous amount of nuance about the lives of Rebecca and Lucie and others -- but we never wonder if any of this is delusional.  Without that ambiguity, the story suffers.

Second, the film fails to create an atmosphere appropriate for the story.   I would personally have liked a feeling of gothic mystery, but more importantly there's no very strong sense of place.  Nearly the entire story takes place in a school, one that used to be a hotel long ago.  We see all kinds of little details about the school, but it never comes alive as a place.  Teachers are only barely present.  Hallways and architecture never assume a personality of their own.   Interplay between teachers and students, students and other students, between teachers and teachers never gives us a sense of the whole.  In the book, for example, Rebecca is subtly made to never forget she is Jewish.  Students constantly sneak around and hide from the teachers--who play favorites.  Virtually none of this can be seen.  One side effect is the film remains too short!  Less than an hour and a half!  Without taking the time (another twenty minutes maybe) to establish this place both physically and psychologically, we the viewers lack a context with which to respond.

Finally a few words about the climax.   Consider the setup.  Rebecca, by now convinced Ernessa is a vampire and a murderer, notes the other girl goes into a locked room in the basement.  At last Rebecca finds a way to open the door.  In a corner of the room is an old steamer trunk, with Ernessa's faded name on one of the stickers. Within the trunk is a bed of leaves and a diary.  She reads it.  She learns Ernessa committed suicide in this hotel all those years ago, in despair over her own father's suicide.  Rebecca has a horrified revelation!  She's been told a vampire wants someone to be hers forever.  Ernessa didn't come here for Lucie!  She's here for Rebecca!

So far so good.  But what happens next?  Rebecca goes and gets a can of something flammable, returns to the basement to find Ernessa asleep in the trunk.   Rebecca then douses the trunk and strikes a match.  As the trunk burns, Ernessa stands and screams.  Rebecca just watches.  She leaves the room, finishes writing in her diary while the fire department comes and willingly accompanies the principal when told the police have a few questions.

There's more to it than that (some of it quite cool, let us be fair) but notice what's missing?  Conflict.  Drama.  Obstacles.  Rebecca simply sets the vampire alight who doesn't even try to defend herself.  She doesn't even have to sneak around, figure out how to do it, get away with stealing kerosene, etc.  She shows neither doubt nor hesitation as she sets another person on fire--so no internal conflict either.  Nor does she show any regret, any trauma for having done this.

Here is the greatest weakness in what remains overall an interesting vampire tale overall.  It is as if James Bond defeated the bad buy by pressing a button in his car.  Or if Wonder Woman walked up behind The Joker, hit him over the head with a bottle and end of story.  Without some kind of tension, conflict surrounding the climax then that moment--the one we've been waiting for all along--becomes a dud.  How much more exciting (for instance) if Rebecca was a little unsure of herself, and could barely bring herself to light the match?  And as Ernessa screamed in agony, Rebecca ran away tears streaming down her face?

I'm not sorry to have seen this film.  And there are moments genuinely praiseworthy.  But in the end I was disappointed.

Related posts:

1. The Moth Diaries Review
2. ‘The Moth Diaries’ Trailer & Poster Finally Revealed
3. The Moth Diaries

Tis’ the season for conventions, and what do film makers do at Cons? Well, they don’t get their cosplay on and geek out over comics, no, they promote their films. That was the case at WonderCon 2012 this past weekend where the folks behind Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter showed new footage of the film and held a panel where they answered the crowd’s questions. Check out the panel recap below, but first, here is recently released second Abe Lincoln trailer!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Now for the WonderCon panel! The Abraham Lincoln panel started with Seth Grahame-Smith introducing a new sequence from Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, the film Grahame-Smith adapted from his novel of the same name. The virtually-wordless action sequence focused on the president (played by Benjamin Walker) on a train heading to the battle at Gettysburg and tormented by a horde of vicious vampires. The clip also featured two characters that Grahame-Smith later explained were created solely for the film: The film’s central vampire villain (played by Rufus Sewell) and Lincoln’s trusty right-hand man (played by Anthony Mackie). They all battle on the top of the train as it races over a wooden bridge that has been lit on fire, Lincoln using a handy contraption that’s half ax, half rifle. Gunaxe!

"So basically, just like we learned in school," Grahame-Smith joked after the footage was over, right before welcoming director Timur Bekmambetov and star Benjamin Walker to the stage to take questions from the crowd.

Here’s the summary of the panel:

• When asked about how Grahame-Smith came up with the idea of combining Abraham Lincoln and vampire hunting, he joked that he just gets really drunk by himself and throws darts at a wall until he hits two words that are completely unrelated. Truthfully, he said that the idea came from a book tour he was on for his novel, 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.' Since it was during Lincoln’s 200th birthday, book stores had Lincoln biographies on display, right next to displays of the Twilight novels. This triggered him to research Lincoln and mix vampires into the tale.
• Walker spoke on the Gothic tone of the film, and how strangely historically accurate it is (bringing up the unexplained death of Lincoln’s mother), calling it a “period Lincoln movie that just happens to have vampires in it.”
• When asked about how he felt about his role as Lincoln, Walker called it "badass" and added, "It’s an honor as an American. I want to know that my leaders are strong and can make tough decisions…and cut some heads off."
• Bekmambetov, Grahame-Smith and Walker all chatted about Tim Burton’s support in wanting to take an aggressive, all-out approach on the film. Bekmambetov also said that while they changed a few things from the book, the overall tone of the novel and the structure around Lincoln’s life is still present.
• On vampire comparisons, Grahame-Smith said the following: “I’m not a Twilight-hater, but I’ll say this…our vampires don’t sparkle.”
• Bekmambetov also joked that it’s important to note that movie is being released on shortest night of the year. Adding that they worked hard to ground the vampires in reality, noting that the vampires could be seen during the day since sunscreen was invented in the 19th century.
• When asked if President Obama would make a good vampire slayer, Grahame-Smith responded smoothly that “he’s tall, he’s athletic” and could be ok. When asked what Obama’s weapon of choice would be, Walker cleverly quipped “Diplomacy. Maybe email.”

Haha. I wish I was at that panel, sounded like it was good fun and full of info.

What are your thoughts on the new trailer and the panel?

- Moonlight

Related posts:

1. First Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Trailer Released!
2. No Director Yet for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Film Adaptation
3. Tim Burton to Make “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” Movie