Sam Raimi, Steve Niles, Ben Templesmith-30 Days of Night
The team behind the 30 Days of Night graphic novels - writer Steve Niles and graphic artist Ben Templesmith - joined producer Sam Raimi on the red carpet in Hollywood to talk about bringing their vision to life on the big screen.
Transcript: Sam Raimi, Steve Niles, Ben Templesmith-30 Days of Night
Rebecca Murray from About.com Hollywood Movies at the Hollywood premiere of 30 Days of Night.
Producer Sam Raimi
How important was it for you to have the guys that were involved with the graphic novel actually involved with the film?
Sam Raimi: "Great, because Steve Niles is a great writer and so to have his expertise on the first draft of the screenplay really set the movie off on the right foot and on the right path to realize a vision of the film that was faithful to his graphic novel."
The director of this movie is not the obvious choice for doing a vampire movie. Hard Candy is nothing like this at all. Why did you think David Slade could tackle something like this?
Sam Raimi: "Well Hard Candy showed an incredible craftsman at work. He has a great ability to work with actors. He got great performances from that film. And the main characters in this piece are the heart and soul of what made the graphic novel so exciting to me. So I felt that he could really work with actors in a great way. And he loved the material that it was based on, so I knew that he just wasn't trying to change it into something else. He was trying to recognize what was great about it, and bring it to the screen."
Did the studio ever say to cut back on the gore, cut back on any of this, or were they a hard 'R' all along?
Sam Raimi: "No, they knew it was always going to be a hard 'R'. We had to make some cuts for the MPAA, but otherwise when they saw the first test audience whooping and hollering in fear, they were behind us all the way."
What's happening with Wee Free Men?
Sam Raimi: "Right now it's being written. A draft is being worked on and hopefully we'll get to read it very soon."
Are you going to direct it?
Sam Raimi: "I don't know. Don't know."
Do you want to direct that one? Is that one in your future?
Sam Raimi: "I don't know what's next, to be honest."
And The Hobbit is not next?
Sam Raimi: "The Hobbit is Peter Jackson's film."
But there were rumors that you were actually going to direct…
Sam Raimi: "I read that too."
And they're not true?
Sam Raimi: "No."
Writer Steve Niles
Steve Niles: "There was a bidding war between three studios and as soon as I heard Sam's name come up, as soon as I heard Sam Raimi I said, 'Go with him. I don't care what studio, what they're offering. He's the guy to go to,' because I saw Spider-Man and I knew, you know, he knew how. When I watched the first Spider-Man movie, I'm such a nerd I knew everything that was going to happen because he was so accurate to the comic. And I could name the issue and what cover they took it from. I loved it. And then sure enough, audiences responded because there's a reason people like this stuff. So I went with Raimi and then it turns out he hires David Slade..."
Who is not an obvious choice…
Steve Niles: "Not an obvious choice at all. I mean, I was blown away by Hard Candy but you wouldn't – big, epic horror movie, you didn't know if he would even be interested in something like that. There was sort of an art house quality to Hard Candy. And then as it turns out he was one of the 4,000 people who bought the comic when nobody else did. He was a fan. He's a huge fan and he said right up, 'I want to preserve your story, Ben's artwork, and I want to get it all up on screen.' And he's our hero. He fought for us every step of the way. And that's really what it takes, to have somebody like a producer like Sam Raimi and a director like David Slade in your corner with everybody sharing the vision. And, you know, it really makes the difference."
Graphic Novel Artist Ben Templesmith
How involved did they keep you in the process of making it into a film? Did they come to you and tell you about the look that they were going for and see how you felt?
Ben Templesmith: "No, they didn't need to. David Slade was a fan of the book before there was any movie talk. He picked it up way back when, and he liked the comic then. And the fact that then he became the director, he literally had the comic book pages splashed in the studio and in the costume department and everywhere. They were directly used as a bible, literally. My handwriting is in this film because they meticulously copied it that much. He made sure. David Slade, it's all down to him. They had it all there.[p] Comics are virtually movies on paper anyway. I mean, I have been involved in some stuff afterwards, after the fact, but they didn't need me, really. I wasn't going to argue with the fact that, 'You want to make it exactly like the comic? How dare you!' I'm not going to say no to that so no, David has done an amazing job."
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