Some are already calling Australian directors Michael and Peter Spierig 'the next big thing', and as their two-year old horror comedy "Undead" finally opens throughout North America, the brothers are already prepping their latest film, a vampire movie with a twist. As they get ready to go big-budget for indie studio Lion's Gate, they told our LA correspondent Paul Fischer about it:
Question: Let me ask you about the Vampire movie, which is apparently the next one. How are you going to make a vampire genre a little bit more interesting?
Michael Spierig: The vampire project we hope is quite different to all the other vampire movies. Its called 'Day Breakers'. It is basically a film about...it basically set about 10 to 15 years in the future and what's happened is that the world has almost been completely taken over by vampires, but what's happened is that the vampires have kind of accepted their life and returned back to their suburban homes and back to their daily jobs. So we are dealing with a world now that tries to live day by day and accept their lives as vampire.
Question: Are they doing this at night or are they...
Michael Spierig: They are doing this at night but they have also modified their lives so they can function also in the daytime. Like they have modified their houses so they can block out their windows, they have built walkways so they can walk around during the day, they have modified their cars so they can drive during the day. But the problem is what has started to happen is this new world what's started to happens is they are running out of their food supply, which is human blood. There is very few human beings left in the world and vampires are starting to starve. So the film is essentially about 2 brothers strangely enough. They go on two completely different paths...
Question: So there is no human's in it?
Michael Spierig: There are a few humans but they are just prey that is out there to be hunted you know, majority of the film...
Question: Are humans only like animals and the vampires are kind of like...
Michael Spierig: No humans are still human beings but they are the hunted...
Peter Spierig: They are living in fear...
Michael Spierig: Yeah, they are living in fear. The film doesn't focus on human beings it focuses on vampires and like I was saying there are two brothers. One is on a path to try and find a cure to become human again because he feels that if he stays on the path of the vampire you completely loose your humanity. While the other brother loves the life of a vampire, gets to live forever, gets to do whatever he wants you know not a care in the world so they head down two very different paths and in the end they ultimately meet up and there is a greater resolution to this whole vampire life...
Peter Spierig: But there are also a few sorts of twists and turns along the way none of which we've really mentioned to you but there are additions to the mythology.
Question: Is it going to be a darker film in some ways then 'Undead'?
Michael Spierig: Absolutely, this is not a comedy at all; this is a drama, action movie.
Question: What about casting and are you going to make the film in Australia?
Michael Spierig: We are going to hopefully shoot the movie in Australia we are after some American names in the lead, but we will definitely be casting some actors out of Australia as well. This is going to be a US movie so we are going to use some US actors.
Question: When do you hope to be able to announce casting?
Peter Spierig: The next month is a pretty critical time there will be some major decisions made, maybe not on casting but certainly on when this thing is going to happen and then hopefully there will some announcements made...
Question: And you guys made 'Undead' as a purely independent film there was no interference from anybody. Here you are going to do deal with the American studios or something and yes they are a small studio but they are studio none the less, corporate minded studio. How nervous are you about that?
Michael Spierig: Peter and I...yes of course we are a little nervous but we spent quite a few years about 3 or 4 years directing television commercials. We dealt with clients; we've dealt with agencies we've dealt with all of these types of people before so it is not completely foreign to us. We are excited at the prospect of not having to worry about spending our own money on a project, we are excited about the prospect of not having to drive the art department truck to the location, we excited about the prospect of Peter not having to drive a generator truck to a location, he didn't even have a truck licence. We are excited about that prospect; we are excited about being able to focus purely on being directors. So yes, yes there will a studio involved, but the prospect of not having to deal with all these other problems is very appealing.
Question: When is the principle photography you do begin? When do you hope to start shooting?
Peter Spierig: We hope that it is towards the end of this year early next year. We are hoping that that will be in our home town, it seems to be everybody wants to go to Australia the studio is excited about that idea, the locations are there, the post productions houses are all in Australia and New Zealand and it just makes a lot of sense.
Question: Do you think that horror is going to be a genre that you are going to specialise in or after the vampire project are you looking at non specific genres to delve into?
Peter Spierig: Certainly the next project will be a horror film, maybe another project after that will be horror or thriller but we are sort of interested in all film, all different genres of films, all different styles of films and you will see with 'Day Breakers' that it is a completely different style to 'Undead'. I think that we are after good scripts and good stories and if that is a horror or it is a romantic comedy then so be it you know, it has just got to be a good story that can be well told.
Thanks to 'Paul'
