Looking at this poster, you might think it’s a scene out of “The Matrix.” You’d be wrong though. “Daybreakers” is a vampire flick that hits theaters on January 8, 2010. This is no “Twilight” though. “Daybreakers”‘ vampires live for human blood, none of that “vegetarian” nonsense. And that’s what you see in the poster revealed after the jump: a vampire-run blood farm.
The story is set in 2019, a dystopian future Earth which has been ravaged by a living plague that turns the human population into vampires. The story follows a rebel group among the vampires, blood-suckers who want a return to the human condition. If the story isn’t enough to snare you, take a look at the cast: Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe and Sam Neill all star. Peep the new poster, revealed exclusively on MTV.com.
Source: mtv.com (click to view poster)
One of the many films that premiered at this year’s Toronto Film Festival was The Spierig Brothers “Daybreakers”. The film stars Ethan Hawke as a brilliant vampire hematologist (blood expert) and he lives in a world where most humans have been turned into vampires due to a plague. Unfortunately, with a vampire society so large, they’ve killed most of the remaining humans and they’re relying on Hawke to provide a blood substitute. The film also stars Sam Neill, Isabel Lucas, and Willem Dafoe.
While I wasn’t sure what to expect going in, I was surprised by how much I liked the movie. It’s a high concept film that also plays as a vampire movie. I think audiences are going to like it when Lionsgate releases it this January. Anyway, while at the festival, I got to interview The Spierig Brothers and you can read our conversation after the jump. They talk about doing some of the special effects themselves, getting financing, making the film, and they also talk about their next movie “Captain Blood”.
(more…)
Michael Spierig has a shocking confession to make.
“When we made Daybreakers, I had never even heard of Twilight,” says Michael, who directed the upcoming vampire saga with brother Peter. “Our lead character’s name is Edward, and I started seeing these Edward the Vampire T-shirts. I’m like, ‘Do they already know about our film? What the hell’s going on?’ And I’m told there’s this other thing called Twilight. And I go, “What the hell’s Twilight?’”
The Spierigs – the Australia brothers who first caught our attention with 2003’s micro-budgeted zombie saga Undead – now know all too well about the girl-friendly Twilight saga. But they’re not worried the sequel New Moon will take a bite out of the ultra-violent Daybreakers’s business when it opens Jan. 10, 2010.
“I think it’s actually going to help us,” Michael says. “I would be worried if our film was like those, but our film is so different.”
(more…)
Back in 2002, the Spierig brothers brought the beloved zombie movie
Undead to the Toronto International Film Festival’s Midnight Madness gala. This year they are back with their take on the vampire genre. Brothers Michael and Peter Spierig have once again created an original take on a timely monster that is sure to have genre fans excited and happy since they most certainly do it justice. This time with a bigger budget and bigger stars, the likes of Ethan Hawke, Sam Neill and Willem Dafoe join the brothers in Daybreakers a vampire film where the vampires are the civilians and the humans are the minority.
The day after the successful premiere of the film at TIFF, I had a chance to chat to the very exhausted Michael and Peter about who came up with the idea first, a potentially fatal disease the cast and crew got and what we can expect next from the duo.
ShockTillYouDrop.com: Who came up with the idea for Daybeakers first?
Michael: Well, perhaps it was I who came up with the original idea. We were just chatting about vampire films and I threw out there, well, what if we turn the tables a little bit and the whole world has been dominated by vampires. And instead of it being post apocalyptic vampire film, let’s put them back in their homes and have them try to live as normal vampire folk. The fun in that is we can add vampire modifications to lifestyles like driving during the daytime with blacked out windows and using video cameras to see where they are going.
(more…)
I wasn’t crazy about the first film by the Spierig Brothers, but I respected it as a piece of independent filmmaking just in terms of what they accomplished and how much it cost. It’s a very, very tiny film, but there are some gigantic moments and images in it that had an almost Gilliam-esque approach to effects work. I remember writing at the time that I had faith that if they ever had some greater resources behind them and a better script, they had a really good movie in them.
“Daybreakers” is, for the most part, that movie.
I’m impressed by the gore noir look of the movie, set in a world about 20 years from now, once vampires have completely taken over the world. They don’t just outnumber humans… it’s gotten to the point where humans are basically extinct except for giant private blood farms. It’s reached the point of crisis, so Edward (Ethan Hawke) works with a research time to develop a blood substitute that can keep the vampire population alive. Those that starve, unable to find real blood, become monsters, crazed and powerful. The last pockets of humans have been driven completely underground. It looks like everyone’s going extinct at the same time, with no hope.
Vampires are all the rage these days, between the tween thrust of Twilight and the sexual abandon of True Blood. But Daybreakers is not like its current brethren – it’s a classic vamp movie that follows some beloved myths while also introducing the genre to a whole new world of deadly circumstances. One, I might add, that doesn’t have any diamond-studded bloodsuckers. Read on to see why you should see Daybreakers.
The Toronto International Film Festival announces its complete 22nd Midnight Madness programme, a Festival favorite drawing legions of devoted fans for manic midnight screenings of wild and wicked films for the witching hour. Midnight Madness continues to offer films that you might not expect in a festival context, an eccentric mix of the weird and the wonderful, and this year’s features include crazed animation, chick fights, zombies, vampires, a possessed cheerleader, exhilarating martial arts and more!
Daybreakers
Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig, Australia/USA
World Premiere
Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe and Sam Neill star in this sci-fi horror about a future populated by vampires where humans are the minority.
Source: TIFF.net
It’s a vampire movie, the lead character is named Edward and it arrives in theaters this winter. Um no, not that one. But hey Twilighters… maybe we should keep an eye on this “Daybreakers” movie too, don’t ya think?
Starring Ethan Hawke (as Edward), Willem Dafoe, Sam Neil and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” breakout Isabel Lucas, “Daybreakers” sounds like a less romantic, bloodier alternative to the “Twilight” craze. Lucas, an Australian native, sat down with MTV recently to spill the beans on the vampire flick’s hot new trailer, and how the flick is aiming to draw new blood out of the crowded genre.
“They’re different vampires; they’re much more classic,” she said of the difference between “Twilight” and her January film, about an Earth in 2019 where a handful of humans struggle for survival ten years after a plague turns much of the population into bloodsuckers. “95% of the population of the world is now vampires, and there are 5% of fugitive humans on the run.”
(more…)
The trailer for Daybreakers has hit the web and it looks really amazing!! It actually features a few quick looks at Isabel Lucas’ character. View the trailer here and caps in the gallery.
Transformers 2
The Cove 
Daybreakers 
